Break Stuff
by Designation
Summary: New summary, old story, final chapter up Have you ever wondered what it would feel like if the whole world were against you? If Alec ever did, he's sorry now.
1. Tension Breaker

Title: Break Stuff  
  
Summary: Try to have a little fun and look what you get!  
  
Disclaimer: I know I don't own Dark Angel, I just like writing about it.  
  
Time line: Sketchy knows who's who, and the whole Jam Pony hostage thing never happened yet.   
Logan thinks Max and Alec are together, though I didn't do too much concentrating on that. I'd  
say around LAR, but you be the judge.  
  
Author's Note: is for thoughts, * * is for emphasis, and *** is for different setting.  
  
Chapter 1: Tension Breaker  
  
Crash  
  
"Are you kidding?" Alec asked, incredulous.  
  
"Logan's right, Alec, we *all* need a serious tension breaker," Max replied, getting annoyed.  
  
"Okay, but salsa dancing?" The look on Alec's face was comical, to say the least.  
  
"I think it's a great idea," OC pitched in.  
  
Alec whipped his head in OC's direction. "You would."  
  
"So would I," said Asha.  
  
Logan, Max, Alec, Asha, OC and Sketchy were all sitting at a table in Crash, contemplating  
Logan's close "friendship" with the bouncer at a classy salsa club in Sector 6.  
  
"Please tell me this is a joke," Alec whimpered.  
  
"I'm with Alec on this one," Sketchy added.  
  
"Okay, Sketch, but your opinion doesn't matter," Max said sweetly. "You're going. And so are  
you, Alec."  
  
"Well, now that that's settled," Logan said, receiving a hateful stare from Alec, "when?"  
  
"Saturday?" Max suggested, looking around at the group. Logan, OC, and Asha nodded. OC  
reached out to either side of herself and grabbed Sketchy and Alec by the hair, nodding their  
heads for them. "What's your problem anyway, Alec? Can't dance?" Max asked.  
  
"Hey, I am the Dancing King," said Alec. "I just . . . salsa dancing?"  
  
"Mmm-hmm."  
  
"Fine."  
  
***  
  
Salsa Club  
  
The group sat around a table in the club in a sort of parody of the way they sat at Crash. They  
looked exactly the same except the wore fancier clothes, they sipped fancier drinks, and they sat  
at a fancier table. "Is any one going to dance at all tonight?" Logan asked, for the fourth or fifth  
time that night.  
  
"I'll dance," Asha replied, lifting her hand so Logan could lead her to the dance floor.  
  
"Look at them," Max said, feeling a little jealous. She would have danced with Logan, except  
that it would be a little difficult not to touch him while doing so. Plus, she was supposed to be  
dating Alec, not Logan. "They look like they were made to dance together." And it was true,  
Logan and Asha had perfect chemistry on the dance floor.  
  
"C'mon fool," OC said, grabbing Sketchy by the shirt sleeve to drag him to the dance floor.  
  
"Uh, OC?" Sketchy said, seeming uncomfortable.  
  
"Aiight. I'll teach you how to not trip over your own feet on da dance floor."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Look Alec!" Max said. "Even Sketchy's dancing! And look how good Logan and Asha look  
together! You're not going to let yourself be upstaged by a cripple and a dumb blonde, are you,  
Mr. Dancing King?"  
  
"Fine, Max, if you're that desperate," Alec said with a grin beginning to form on his lips.  
  
"You were just waiting for me to ask, weren't you?" Alec grinned fully. "You jerk!" Max hit  
him on the arm and dragged him to the floor. "Let's see what the Dancing King can do."  
  
Max was surprised. Not only did Alec keep up with her through every spin, dip, and twirl, but  
she found herself trying to keep up with him! Max felt like she was in one of those old movies  
where the people start dancing and suddenly everyone's following them and they're all in perfect  
sync. Except her and Alec didn't have a following, just a large crowd of onlookers. Pretty soon a  
circle had formed around them as the crowd watched them dance. "They must have  
choreographed this," Max heard someone in the crowd mutter. OC and Sketchy watched with  
wide eyes. Logan and Asha didn't even notice the circle, they were too busy concentrating on  
their own dancing.  
  
When the song ended, Alec, Max, Sketchy, and OC all headed back to their table, as the crowd  
began to clap.  
  
Alec sat back down in the same chair and took up the same position. When Logan and Asha  
came back to sit down, it looked as if Alec hadn't even left his chair. "Who's the Dancing King  
now?" Logan asked Alec.  
  
"He is," OC said, pointing to Alec. She still had an awed/surprised look on her face.  
  
"Did we miss something?" Asha asked.  
  
Alec grinned. "Well, I hate to brag, but-"  
  
"Wait a minute," Logan interrupted. "Isn't bragging what you do best?"  
  
Max laughed. "Yeah, that and screwing up."  
  
Alec was hurt. He hated that all Max thought of him was that he was a screw-up. She happened  
to be his closest friend, and she didn't even like him.  
  
Sketchy, not having known Max and Alec's true identities for very long, didn't pick up on the  
joke that Max and Logan seemed to be getting such a kick out of. He did, however, pick up on  
the hurt look that crossed Alec's face for a second there. A hurt look that was suddenly replaced  
by worry and concern, and a sort of emotional detachment. Kind of like a soldier.  
  
"Max," Alec whispered.  
  
"What's your dealio?" Max sneered at his sudden 'soldier look.'  
  
"Snipers, second level," Alec tilted his head slightly at a point over Max's shoulder. "Don't look,  
don't draw attention."  
  
Sketchy turned his head back towards Alec.  
  
"White?" Max asked.  
  
"Can't tell."  
  
***  
  
"We're in position, sir," a voice crackled over the radio.  
  
"Copy that," White said. He was surprised that 452 still bothered to go to Crash. Anyone could  
go in and listen to her conversations and find out things like where she worked, and where she  
was going to be on Saturday. A salsa club, for example.  
  
He sat in his car, outside the salsa club, talking via radio to his snipers who were inside the  
building.  
  
"We've got her in sight, sir."  
  
"Very good. Maintain radio silence from here on out." No reply came. Good boy, White  
thought. He got out of his car and headed into the building.  
  
***  
  
"We need to keep them from firing into the crowd," Max whispered to the others, trying to think  
up a plan.  
  
"They'll notice if you get up and leave," Alec whispered back. "I'll take them out."  
  
"Be careful," Max said.  
  
"I know, and don't screw up," Alec said, with a hint of venom in his voice. Before Max could say  
anything, he got up and headed towards the bathrooms.  
  
***  
  
Alec veered away from the bathroom doors at the last minute and headed towards the stairs. He  
climbed them slowly and quietly to the second floor. There were three snipers spread out just far  
enough so that he'd have some difficulty taking them out before a shot was fired.  
  
Alec braced himself and snuck up behind one of the snipers. He took him out in a second and  
took his gun, there was a silencer, thankfully, and he shot the other two with it. "Whew," he said.   
"That was way too easy."  
  
"Well I can fix that," said a familiar voice from behind him. Emphasis on the familiar. White.  
  
Alec whipped up the gun to shoot White, but before he knew it the gun was being kicked out of  
his hand. White then punched him in the face. Hard.  
  
______________________________________________________________________________  
  
If you want to find out what happens, review!  
  
(I feel kinda evil, he he!) 


	2. Tension Again

Chapter 2: Tension Again  
  
Author's Note: Sorry 'bout that, -blah- is for thought's only take off the blah... Don't mind if I  
don't make sense.  
  
Author's Note 2: Just to clear up, in case you noticed White's little lack-of-thought before he got  
out of the car, it was supposed to be -Good boy,- White thought.  
  
Author's Note 3: I intended this chapter to be the last, but thanks to Brin, I realized that it could  
use a lot of improvement. Thanks for the advice. And now I'm gonna continue. What's the use  
of a *two* chapter story anyway?  
  
______________________________________________________________________________  
  
"The snipers are down," Max whispered.  
  
"What do we do now?" Sketchy asked. After all, if someone was in the building trying to kill  
them, then they couldn't just go on dancing like nothing was happening.  
  
Max, still looking up at the second level, said quietly, "I don't know."  
  
"Shouldn't he be back by now?" Asha asked.  
  
"Yeah, it is taking him awhile," Logan agreed. "Maybe he ran into some more trouble."  
  
Suddenly, Max saw Alec slam into the railing of the second level, having been punched in the face  
by White. Max got up and ran for the stairs. "White!"  
  
The others followed her gaze and all got looks of worry and fear on their faces.  
  
***  
  
White threw another punch at Alec's face and Alec ducked. White lost his balance at little and  
tipped forward. Alec came up under him and threw him into the wall.  
  
The two men rushed at each other and began punching and kicking each other for all they were  
worth. -In White's case, that's not very much,- Alec thought, as he landed a solid blow to  
White's face.  
  
The battle grew more and more heated. White kicked Alec in the ribs, hard, and Alec was sure he  
felt a few of them break. Alec staggered back, but he ignored the pain as much as he could and  
grabbed White's foot as he brought it up to kick him again. As he was about to twist it and break  
a few bones, White jumped, bringing his other foot up to kick Alec in the head. Alec barely  
managed to acknowledge the sound of something snapping as he held White's foot in a firm grip,  
just before his vision blurred over slightly as the two men fell to the floor.  
  
  
Despite his injured ankle, White was up first and aiming another kick to Alec's ribs. Alec barely  
managed to roll away in time. He leapt to his feet shaking off his slight dizziness. White lunged  
at him, aiming a punch at his face. Alec blocked it and returned the favour, breaking White's  
nose.   
  
  
***  
  
"Alec, hold on," Max whispered as she rushed up the stairs. As annoying as Alec could be at  
times, she didn't want him to be killed. In fact, she didn't even care about his annoying  
comments, and she was sure the things she said to him sometimes did more damage than the  
things he said to her.  
  
Max found herself wishing she could take back those thing's she'd said.  
  
'Isn't bragging what you do best?' Logan had said.  
  
'Yeah, that and screwing up.'  
  
Max had laughed. Alec sure hadn't. She'd seen the look on his face. -What the hell is my  
problem?- She had continued laughing anyway. That must have stung much more than her  
words. She'd been almost glad when he told her about the snipers. It had saved her from seeing  
any more of that pained look.  
  
She knew that Alec couldn't have forgotten it all, in favour of his 'mission.' It wasn't like this was  
the first time she had inspired pain in his eyes. He had just pushed it aside. And Max would be  
damned if she let him die before she fixed it for good.  
  
-Hold on, Alec, hold on.-  
  
***  
  
Alec wasn't doing too well. He had several broken ribs, and God only knew what else was  
broken. He was bleeding. He was bruised. His only consolation was that White appeared to be  
in similar condition. Except White was well enough to be inflicting more pain.  
  
White punched Alec in the gut and kneed him in the face when he doubled over. Alec staggered  
backward. He managed to avoid White's next punch by stepping back yet again and he suddenly  
felt his back hit the wall. He pushed off from it, and tackled White to the floor. Alec pinned  
White down and began punching him mercilessly in the face.  
  
As Alec brought his fist down yet again, White tilted his head to the side, causing Alec to put a  
sizable dent in the floor. White threw Alec off him. Alec landed on his back on the floor and  
white picked him up and threw him at the stairwell door. Which flew open just before he would  
have hit it.  
  
  
***  
  
If Max hadn't been knocked down the stairs as soon as she opened the door, she would have  
jumped a mile. She hit the between floors landing hard, the wind almost knocked out of her. She  
whipped her head to the side to see Alec unconscious. She felt a swell of worry.  
  
"Well, well, 452," White said coming through the stairwell door above her. "How nice to see you  
again."  
  
"Bite me," Max said, wiggling out from under Alec, who had landed half on top of her.  
  
White slowly made his way down the stairs toward her. "You can never win, you know," he said.   
"No matter how good Sandeman may have made you, you'll never be good enough to beat us."   
He stepped onto the landing with her and Alec. "Why don't you just give up now?"  
  
Max stood toe to toe with him and raised her eyes to look at him. "Because it's so fun to kick  
your ass, and no matter what you say, I always will."  
  
"Someday that pride of yours will get you killed."  
  
"Someday *I'll* get *you* killed."  
  
"You can't, you see, 452," White said, grinning. "You can't beat me one on one, and you have  
no one around who can possibly help you."  
  
"Do you suffer from memory loss, or are you just dumb?" Max sneered. "I always have back up."  
  
Before White even knew what was going on, Alec kicked his legs up behind White, sending him  
flying headfirst down the rest of the stairs. He hit the floor, unconscious.  
  
Max reached out a hand and helped Alec up. "Thanks."  
  
"Always."  
  
"I know," Max smiled. "Are you okay?"  
  
"I'll live," Alec replied. He took a deep breath and winced. "Probably with a few cracked ribs,  
but I'll live."  
  
They walked down the stairs, slowly and carefully, Max offering Alec a little support. He and  
White both looked as if they had taken quite a beating. Not that Max cared about White. -I *do*  
care about Alec,- she thought, and was a little scared of that.  
  
When they got down, Max bent down and checked White's pulse. "He's still alive," she said.  
  
"Remind me again why we can't just kill him?" Alec said in a pleading voice.  
  
"Because the ordinaries don't know that he's not human, Alec," Max said, sounding a little upset.   
"Let's get the hell out of here."  
  
"Yeah. Gladly."  
  
***  
  
Logan, Asha, OC, and Sketchy anxiously watched the upper level and the stairwell door for any  
signs of Max or Alec.  
  
They were very relieved when the door opened and Max stepped out with Alec in tow. They all  
visibly deflated.  
  
Max motioned toward the exit. Sketchy began to stand, but Logan grabbed his sleeve and yanked  
him bact to his chair. "Casually," he whispered.  
  
"Well," said OC, "it's sure getting tired in here, what say we call it a night?"  
  
"Yeah," agreed Asha, following along. "If I have to watch Sketchy try to dance once more, I'm  
gonna be sick."  
  
"Hey!" Sketchy said.  
  
"Let's go home," Logan said.  
  
They all grabbed their coats and slowly left the table, heading for the exit.  
  
They met Max and Alec outside and all piled into Logan's car, with Logan in front of course, OC  
and Sketchy squeezed into the front with him, and Asha, Max, and Alec in the back.  
  
It was a tight squeeze, but if they had put up with it on the way there, they could put up with it on  
the way back. Alec, however, looked a little uncomfortable, and was glad when Asha's stop  
came and she left the back seat, leaving him and Max. "You okay?" Max asked.  
  
"Like I said, I'll live."  
  
"Hey Sketchy, can you hand me the first-aid kit under your seat?" Max asked.  
  
"Sure," Sketchy replied, handing it back to her.  
  
"Here, let me have a look," Max said to Alec.  
  
She helped him to remove his shirt, and winced as Alec grimaced in pain.  
  
She winced again as she saw the blood and cuts and bruises all over his torso. She began to tend  
to him, taking extra care with the nasty wound to his ribs.  
  
"Hey, wait a minute!" Alec said, suddenly looking confused.  
  
"What?" Max asked, with a hint of worry in her voice.  
  
"Sketchy," Alec went on, completely ignoring her, "if you can't dance, then why the hell did you  
agree to go to a *salsa club*?"  
  
Max, OC, and Logan all got the same confused look on their faces as Alec did.  
  
"Because," replied Sketchy, sounding annoyed, "you guys wouldn't take no for an answer, no  
matter what anyone said."  
  
They all began to laugh.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, White pulled himself off of the floor back at the salsa club, quite surprised that no one  
had stumbled across him as he lay there unconscious. Good thing he wasn't out very long.  
  
He pulled his cell out of his pocket, surprised it hadn't been crushed, and dialed.  
  
There were muffled voices as someone picked up on the other end. "I'm gonna need back-up,"  
he said to the other person. He gave the address of the club and headed out to his car, ignoring  
the gasps of people who saw his condition along the way.  
  
A few minutes after he got to his car, Otto arrived with three vehicles, several men, and lots of  
weaponry. "Let's move people, we don't have much time!" White ordered.  
  
White got into Otto's car with him, another man taking White's car. "Did you place the tracking  
device?" White asked.  
  
"Yes sir," Otto replied, looking him over. "Are you alright, sir?"  
  
"I'll live," White replied, unknowingly echoing Alec's words. "I'll be much better when we get  
452 and 494."  
  
They pulled away from the club. They followed the direction of a small radar screen on the  
dashboard. They followed the direction of Logan's car.  
  
To Be Continued . . .  
______________________________________________________________________________  
  
Review. Please! 


	3. OMG the Author's Insane!

Chapter 3  
  
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.  
  
Author's Note: Just to let you know; when White got into the car with Otto, White was driving.  
  
Today's Motto: The little things don't matter; it's the overall thought that counts!  
  
Author's Note 2: I know I took a long time with this chapter . . . . I'm a little surprised that the  
people who already reviewed and said they liked this story didn't review again to say 'Write more  
or I will kill you!' Now that's the kind of review that would motivate me, or strike fear in my  
little heart! Eh, scratch all that, encouragement is probably better than threats . . . Maybe you  
should all just ignore 'Author's Note 2' if you value your sanity . . . In other words, scratch it all!   
Well that sounds scary: scrap it all!  
  
Today's Other Motto: One man's two wrongs may not make another man's right, but a good  
'never mind' heals all wounds!  
  
Author's Note 3: Next week, class, we will be going on a field trip to that little place around the  
corner called the Psychiatrist's Office! No, SCRATCH THAT, it would be best if we went to the  
MENTAL INSTITUTION! (Actually, where I'm from, it's known as the fourth floor of the  
hospital, even though I think they may have moved to another floor . . .) Dear God! Someone  
please end this insanity!  
  
(You'd swear to god I just drank an entire reservoir of coffee, with EXTRA CAFFEINE!!!!!!!!!!)  
(Or I just had WAY too much to drink! Even though I'm only 15!)  
  
[Shudders with pure disgust]  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Logan's Car  
  
Max finished bandaging Alec's wounds as they headed to Sketchy's place to drop him off.  
  
"That must've been some fight," Sketchy commented, turning his head to Alec.  
  
"You have no idea," Alec grinned. It was true, Sketchy had not yet witnessed a real transgenic  
vs. transgenic, or transgenic vs. familiar, fight.  
  
"Yeah Sketch," Max agreed. "You'll have to tag along next time."  
  
"Okay."  
  
Max's eyes went wide. "No! I was kidding!" Alec looked frantically between Sketchy and Max.  
  
"Uh, right," Sketchy said.  
  
"Fool," OC muttered, grinning.  
  
"Annnnyway . . ." Alec said. "Hey! I've got an idea! Why don't we all head back to Logan's  
place for a drink?"  
  
"Okay," Sketchy said.  
  
"Sure," OC agreed.  
  
"Uh, guys?" Logan questioned.  
  
"Yeah?" Alec asked, all innocence.  
  
All of a sudden Max burst into a fit of giggles. Everyone turned to her with wide eyes.  
  
"Boo, you okay?" OC asked, genuinely worried.  
  
Max laughed harder.  
  
"Max?" Alec said tentatively.  
  
"You-," Max got out between giggles. Alec's brow furrowed with concern. "You waited 'til-"  
She laughed some more. "You waited 'til Asha left!"  
  
"Huh?" Alec was a little confused. Then he grinned. He had suggested a big group get-together  
after Asha was gone, so she was completely excluded. What a coincidence. A more-fun-for-  
everyone coincidence. Alec laughed as well. OC and Sketchy chuckled along. Logan just smiled  
knowingly. It was obvious to everyone that Max did not like Asha.  
  
Logan became serious again. Why exactly didn't Max like Asha? If Asha was trying to make a  
move on him . . . . But Max was with Alec now. -Oh well,- Logan shrugged it off and continued  
to drive, heading towards his place instead of Sketchy's.  
  
But deep down Logan was still confused. Max wasn't still hung up on him, was she?  
  
"Logan!" OC yelled, startling him from his thoughts.  
  
"Uh, yeah?"  
  
"I said yo' name like three times!" OC scolded.  
  
"You did? Oh, well, what?"  
  
"I was trying to ask if you're okay playin' the host for us all." She looked at him expectantly.  
  
"Yeah . . . uh, sure."  
  
***  
  
White watched as a young blonde woman stepped out of the car which held his two targets, 452  
and 494. Otto had stopped about fifty metres away, with his turn signal on, pretending to wait for  
a green light, to go left. White picked up the car's hand radio. "Burkley," he said into it. "Move  
to my current position. We've got a young lady here who's gonna need a ride."  
  
"Yes sir," a voice crackled over the radio.  
  
White had separated the three vehicles, so as not to draw attention to themselves. They all  
attempted to stay on the trail from a different route.  
  
White turned to the two men in the back seat of Otto's car. "Get her."  
  
They nodded, and stepped out of the car.  
  
Otto turned off the road, and began to follow their target from a parallel road. It was best to be  
as discreet as possible, as two X5's wouldn't have much trouble picking up on a tail. As long as  
he kept them on the radar screen, he was good.   
  
  
***  
  
Logan's car  
  
"You can put your shirt back on now, you know," Max told Alec eyebrow raised. -Not that I  
really want you to. Damn, this is a good view! Why did I have to mention it?-  
  
"Aww, Max, I just thought you'd enjoy an extended look." Alec grinned.  
  
-Oh God, he knows!- Max suddenly got the look of a deer caught in headlights.  
  
Alec, fortunately, did not notice, and proceeded to put his shirt back on. He grimaced as he  
pulled it down over himself.  
  
"You alright?" Max asked.  
  
"I'm always alright." Max wanted to slap him, but instead she just rolled her eyes. He always  
said that when he was, in fact, far from alright. He could never say how he really felt, he always  
had to cover it up by pretending he was alright. Max, who had turned side on in her seat to tend  
to Alec's wounds (trying to ignore the perfect body she'd had her hands on the whole time), and  
hadn't turned back, looked out the rear window of the car, stifling a sigh.  
  
"Oh, make my night better," Max murmured, voice dripping with sarcasm at what she saw behind  
them.  
  
"I thought it was pretty good, considering Asha's no longer here," Alec said with a smirk.  
  
"That was the one good point," Max replied. "I didn't particularly like having guns pointed at  
me, White showing up, falling down some stairs, and having to bandage you up."  
  
Alec looked slightly hurt. It wasn't having to bandage up *him* that bothered Max, it was the  
fact that he needed to be bandaged up. "Anyway," Max said, "what I was going to say was that  
we are being followed."  
  
"Oh," Alec said, as if being followed was a part of his every day life. Which it was. He turned his  
head and looked. "Yep." There was navy blue Toyota following them. The driver was doing a  
pretty good job of going unnoticed, if it hadn't been for their X5 training, Max and Alec wouldn't  
have picked it up.  
  
"It can't be White," Max said, looking out of the corner of her eye at the Toyota.  
  
"You're right, he'd be a little more discreet," Alec agreed.  
  
"Still, he's probably around," Logan pointed out. "I guess it was kind of stupid to think he'd just  
give up for the night."  
  
"Even though he got a major ass-kicking."  
  
Max rolled her eyes. "Yes, Alec."  
  
"No offense Logan, but if White's here, should you really be the one driving?" OC asked.  
  
"Way to bruise his ego, OC," Sketchy said. "I, for one, am sure he can handle it."  
  
"You ain't even sure how to tie your shoelaces! I'm just sayin' that White has faster reflexes than  
the average, *ordinary* bear!" OC told him firmly.  
  
"But not the average, un-ordinary, cat-slash-human," Alec agreed.  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"For now, this'll have to do," Max said. "Logan, pull into this alley."  
  
***  
  
"What are they doing?" the driver of the Toyota wondered out loud. He followed the target into  
the alley, and watched as they swerved around a corner and momentarily out of sight. "Sir," he  
said into his hand radio. "I believe we've been made."  
  
"What's your position?" White's voice crackled over the radio.  
  
"We're directly on the target's tail, sir."  
  
"What the hell are you doing out of position?" White yelled.  
  
The Toyota rounded the corner to find the distance between themselves and the target growing.  
  
"Sir, they're getting away."  
  
***  
  
White punched the dashboard of the car he was driving. (A/N: See?! *White* is driving!) "Idiot,"  
he muttered under his breath. "I'm on my way."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Final Author's Note For This Chapter: I was slowly writing a very long chapter, and I do mean  
slowly, at the rate I was going, I probably would have posted it in about five years! But that's  
what CHAPTERS are for, breaking things up and stuff, so I cut it in half and here you go! I just  
have to clue up the second half before I post it, but I still might take awhile, so don't hold your  
breath. I don't want the only people who reviewed to die! I might not get any more reviews!  
  
I think you know what I want you to do. Please don't make me say it, for your sake. 


	4. Geez, Pay Attention!

Chapter 4  
  
Author's Note: The second half to the chapter I cut in, well, half.  
  
(Pari106: I would give Asha a break, but I don't like her! Maybe she'll get one anyway though. I  
really don't know. You'd think I would, but I don't. Like many other authors it would seem, I'm  
not quite in control of my own stories. (They say that, I'm not being insulting.) Every time I try  
to do something, it ends up coming out differently. Didn't you notice the whole, chapter cut in  
half thing?)  
  
Today's Motto: Death to control freaks!? I dunno. I feel I have to write these mottos even  
though I may not be able to think of anything to say. They're just my thing, and I like æem!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
(Logan's POV)  
  
"Okay, turn here," Max instructed Logan. He turned. "Now go around that corner . . . ."  
  
"Go in there," Alec piped in. "Turn left up there . . . ."  
  
"Now in there," Max added. "No! Not there! There!"  
  
"Geez Logan, pay attention!" Alec scolded. "Turn here."  
  
"Okay . . ." Max said. "Ah! Here he is."  
  
"Finally," Alec muttered.  
  
"Huh?" Logan asked, very confused and a little frustrated at the constant orders.  
  
"Everybody wave to White!" Alec said cheerily. He and Max waved.  
  
"Uh, guys?" Logan said. "You *do* know that I probably can't out-drive White, right?"  
  
"Yep," Alec said. "We know."  
  
"Huh?!?!?" -Christ,- Logan thought. -It's like they know exactly what each other is thinking.-  
Logan felt a slight pang of jealousy. -Heh. Maybe she's not still hung up on me after all.-  
  
"Oh!" Max said. "Turn here!" Logan swerved hard, almost missing the turn.  
  
"Geez Max, pay attention!" Alec scolded. "Oh! Logan! Turn there!" Logan swerved hard, once  
again almost missing the turn.  
  
"Geez Alec, pay attention!" Max mocked. "Okay Logan, turn into here, pull over, and stop."  
  
-Huh?!?!?- "What?!?!?"  
  
"Turn into here, pull over, and stop," Alec repeated. "You know, spin the wheel-thingy? Hit the  
brake-thingy?"  
  
"Shut up," Logan said. "Max, are you sure about this? I mean, it's pretty crowded here." They  
drove down Murray Street, which was coming dangerously close to a traffic jam. Logan was  
surprised he'd been able to even go on the street without being hit by a few crazed, impatient  
drivers.  
  
"I know it's crowded."  
  
Logan sighed in frustration. He turned, pulled over, and stopped, hearing several horns beep and  
several curses floating from other vehicles.  
  
"Wow! Good job, Logan!" Alec mocked.  
  
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"  
  
"Yes. Yes you did."  
  
"Logan, did you just growl?" Sketchy asked, wide-eyed at the sound he heard coming from  
Logan.  
  
Despite their situation, Max and Alec laughed.  
  
-Gallows humour,- Logan thought. -How fun.- At least, he hoped it was gallows humour. He'd  
be rather scared if they were actually amused right now.  
  
"Here he comes," Max said as White pulled up. "Okay, you guys stay in here." She and Alec  
began to get out.  
  
"Max, wait!" Logan said. He reached over OC and Sketchy into his glove compartment and  
pulled out a gun. "Take this."  
  
Max took it and handed it to Alec. "You're not at one-hundred percent. Here."  
  
Alec took the gun and the two of them got out. Logan sighed again.  
  
***  
  
Max and Alec stepped to the back of the car and waited as White pulled up and got out of the  
black sedan, and then three more cars pulled up behind him. Several more car horns honked  
loudly.  
  
"Hey White, how ya doin'?" Alec asked.  
  
"He's not lookin' too good," Max murmured to Alec, loud enough for White to hear.  
  
"Meh," Alec said. "I always thought he was rather butt-ugly anyway."  
  
White cleared his throat impatiently. "Why don't we just get down to business, huh four-five-  
two?"  
  
"Yeah," Alec agreed. "Geez Max, pay atten . . ." Alec trailed of as two of White's men pulled  
Asha roughly from their car, holding her at gunpoint. " . . . tion."  
  
Max shuddered. "She had to come back," she whispered, just loud enough for Alec to hear.   
Which was also just loud enough for White to hear.  
  
White raised an eyebrow an looked momentarily confused.  
  
Max sighed. "Just tell us what you want *this time* so we can get it over with ASAP."  
  
"It's quite simple, four-five-two -"  
  
"Wait, wait, wait, lemme guess," Alec interrupted. "You want Max to turn herself in for Asha  
here."  
  
"To sum it up."  
  
"Boy, this is getting old," Max said. "Okay, here's how it goes. You walk her up to Alec,  
*slowly*, and I'll walk up to you. Got it?"  
  
"Don't try anything, unless you want Blondie here, to wind up dead," White snarled at Alec and  
Max. Alec looked at Max, half-expecting her to burst out in laughter. She managed to look  
serious enough.  
  
"Let's do this already," Max said. She took a step forward as the thick traffic continued to pass  
by, seemingly not knowing or caring about the hostage situation playing out right next to them.   
The many people who would have passed by on foot noticed, however, and stopped what they  
were doing to watch. Despite the guns White and his men held, (and the gun Alec had concealed)  
a crowd had begun to gather. More horns blared.  
  
Max walked towards White, as his lackeys half-dragged Asha towards Alec. Alec kept his eyes  
on Max.  
  
As soon as White had his claws on Max, and his lackeys stepped away from Asha, Max elbowed  
White in the face, hitting his already broken nose. Alec, having anticipated Max's actions, simply  
reached out his two hands, grabbing the gun hands of White's lackeys and pulled them down until  
he was able to ram his knees into each of their faces, one at a time. He moved so fast that the  
second man didn't even have time to react before he was hit.  
  
Alec shoved Asha to the ground behind him and to the side of Logan's car, and jumped high into  
the air as White's other lackeys opened fire. Thankfully, Max was too close to White for them to  
shoot at her without endangering their superior.  
  
Max spun around and pulled back to punch White in the face. He dodged to the side and grabbed  
her arm, using her own momentum to throw her to the ground.  
  
At the sound of gunfire, Asha rolled underneath Logan's car. All the occupants of said car  
reacted as well, ducking to avoid getting hit.  
  
As soon as Alec landed he rushed to the nearest two shooters and quickly disarmed them. He  
pistol-whipped the one to his left, and spun around, bringing his foot up to kick the other in the  
head.  
  
***  
  
"Hey Mac! What's goin' on?" asked a young red-headed kid, walking towards his buddy.  
  
"Jake, hey. Some kinda hostage situation thing," replied Mac, a tall, skinny blonde guy.  
  
"Who's that guy?" Jake asked, pointing to White.  
  
"Dunno. Some government suit."  
  
"He looks familiar," Jake said, trying to see over a few heads to get a better look. He had no clue  
how close to home his words were. "Holy shit! Is that Ames White?"  
  
A few murmurs and gasps of recognition passed through the crowd as they heard him. "Yeah, I  
think it is!" Mac replied. "Wow, we're seeing the one and only Ames White in action!"  
  
Jake grinned. "This is aweso-" He cut off as gunshots rang out. He ducked with the rest of the  
crowd. He still kept his head just high enough to see the action.  
  
"Shit, look how fast they move!" Mac said, watching some guy and an extremely hot girl fight.   
"They must be those mutant freaks."  
  
"Christ, White is moving just as fast! He's one of 'em!" Jake cursed loudly.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Okay, maybe I was wrong about the length of time, I decided I already had written enough to  
make a chapter, so here you go!  
  
Today's Other Motto: Time flies, sometimes when you expect it not to!  
  
Review please! They make me insanely happy!  
  
(And do me a favour, R & R my story, Two Little Pigs and A Llama. I love that story, you  
should too!) (Nobody has read it yet!) (Just click on my name-author profile thingy! You'll find  
it there! You probably coulda figured that out on your own! But hey, whatever it takes to get  
you to R & R! If you think I'm scary, R & R, and add that in! It's one more reason for you to...)   
Hopefully you get the picture and I'll shut up. For now.  
  
I fixed my little error. I'm sorry I hurt everyone's feelings by having White say four-fifty-two!   
He meant four-FIVE-two, I swear. Please don't hurt me. And if I missed any four-fifty-twos,  
please don't brutally murder me!  
  
Kris or kristi2o5: Thanx much for the suggestions, you're the only reviewer who bothered to help  
me on the title. I'll take them all into consideration. 


	5. Mwa ha ha ha!

Disclaimer: Not mine. It all (Dark Angel, its characters, etc, etc, etc.) belongs to its creators,  
James Cameron and Charles Eglee, and whoever else has rights to it. I am not included in that  
category. Oh! But I do own Mac, Jake, tall buff guy, and all the lackeys (except Otto) which I  
abuse freely! Mwa ha ha ha! You may think I don't have the right to own the poor lackeys  
because of that fact, but what're YOU gonna do about it? HUH?  
  
So . . . uh . . . How've y'all been? I'll think of something crazier to say later . . . Then I'll add it  
right after this, and it'll look like it didn't take me any time to think of it. You know, it's amazing  
how much a person can say without actually saying anything at all.  
  
Today's Motto: Rambling endlessly is good, because it eventually gets the point across, and you  
get so much extra with it! (Never mind that today's rambling HAS no point.)  
  
BTW: Check out Not Himself by Whisper, and write to her to help save DA! Come on people!   
Don't you love DA? I mean you claim you do, but do you really?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
White moved towards Max as she hit the ground and kicked her in the ribs. He moved to do it  
again, and Max grabbed his foot, lifting it upwards at the same time kicking his other foot out  
from under him, sending him sprawling to the ground right next to her. She jumped up before he  
could grab her, and kicked hm square in the face.  
  
She moved as if to do it again, but before White could grab her foot, she pulled away, leaned  
down and punched him in the face. She grabbed him by the shoulders, lifted him up and kneed  
him in the gut. White staggered backward and punched her in the face.  
  
Alec was busying himself taking out White's men. He was beating the crap out of two at once,  
when he heard a gun cock behind him. He spun around and ducked at the same time, and the  
bullet whizzed over his head and hit one of the two he was fighting in the shoulder. Alec focused  
on the gun and ran toward the man who had fired, his only concern at the moment was disarming  
him. Which is why he didn't see the man charging at him from the side, wielding a pipe which he  
had gotten from god-knows-where.  
  
The man swung the pipe, connecting solidly with Alec's ribs. Alec fell back.  
  
White punched Max again, and she fell backwards. She grunted as she slammed into Alec's back.   
She quickly wrapped her arms around his to keep them both from falling. "You alright?" she  
asked Alec over her shoulder.  
  
"Golden. You?"  
  
"Been better."  
  
"Me too."  
  
White and three of the four lackeys who were left standing surrounded them from all sides. "I  
told you that you can't win four-five-two," White said.  
  
"Two X5s against three ordinaries and a familiar? Why the hell not?" Max snarled.  
  
"Four ordinaries," White corrected, as the fourth appeared, supporting the unconscious Asha.   
"One hostage."  
  
Alec sighed loudly. "Ames, why couldn't you just leave her out of it?"  
  
Max suppressed a shudder at the familiar speech Alec used when talking to him. No, not familiar,  
just . . . comfortable. Instead of voicing her thoughts, Max simply muttered: "It's what I  
would've done."  
  
Despite the situation, Alec chuckled. "We know Max, we know."  
  
***  
  
"Hey Jake?"  
  
"Yeah Mac?"  
  
"What the hell is a familiar?"  
  
"I have no clue. Hey isn't that Asha, your cousin?"  
  
"Shit!" Mac said. He picked up a can off the dirty ground. "Let her go, you bastard!" he yelled  
and threw the can at White's head.  
  
"What are you doing?" a tall, buff guy standing nearby asked.  
  
"That blonde girl, she's an ordinary, my cousin!"  
  
"What the hell?" the guy muttered.  
  
***  
  
Max grinned as a can flew from the crowd and hit White in the side of his face. "White, you got a  
little . . ." she said, gesturing to the mud that was smeared all over the side of White's face.  
  
"Funny, four-five-two, really funny."  
  
"I agree," Alec piped in.  
  
"Are you forgetting that your friend's life is in my hands?" White asked threateningly.  
  
"Two things White," Max said. "One, she's not my friend, I cannot stand her, and two, she's in  
his hands, not yours."  
  
"Shoot her," White ordered.  
  
The lackey who held Asha raised his gun to her head. He cocked it awkwardly, trying not to drop  
Asha, and prepared to blow her brains out.  
  
In a lightning-fast movement, Alec whipped out Logan's gun and shot him in the lower arm. The  
lackey screamed in pain and dropped Asha and the gun. He fainted from the pain. Alec  
snickered.  
  
White and friends rushed towards Max and Alec, who rejoined arms and jumped while kicking  
out. Max hit White and Otto in the face with her feet, and Alec did the same to the  
other two. Now the only people who were left conscious, aside from the entire crowd of  
ordinaries and the people in the cars, were Max and Alec, who stood side by side, and White.  
  
Max chuckled. "Looks like I'm winning."  
  
"You may be," White replied, getting to his feet and dusting himself off, "but 494's not." With  
that he whipped out a gun and shot Alec.  
  
"Alec!" Max screamed as he hit the ground.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Cliffhanger . . . Mwa ha ha ha!  
  
Review please. I'll tell you what happens later. If you wanna know. I don't even know yet. I  
repeat: Mwa ha ha ha! 


	6. Hold On

Disclaimer: Sprinkle a bit of 'don't own' here, sprinkle a bit of 'don't own' there. . . .  
  
Okay, DON'T have a heart attack people! (Please don't be dead yet, please don't be dead yet. . .)  
  
Here we go.  
  
Today's Motto: Skip the motto, I'm just trying to stop people from having a heart attack!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Alec!" Max screamed as he hit the ground.  
  
She ran at White and grabbed the gun, kicking him in the upper arm and dislocating his shoulder.   
She turned the gun around and pointed it at him, while kneeling at Alec's side.  
  
Alec lay on his back on the ground. "Alec?" Max said.  
  
"I'm alive," he groaned, putting a hand on his lower abdomen. "I don't think he hit anything  
*too* vital."  
  
White stood above them, with Max still pointing his gun at him. "If I had killed you," he said to  
Alec, at a level at which the ordinaries wouldn't hear him, "I wouldn't have the chance to torture  
you to death."  
  
"You won't touch him," Max growled protectively. "Now shut the hell up and put your hands on  
your head." She stood, keeping the gun trained on White's head.  
  
"You know, you're exposing yourself to a lot of people, here," Alec pointed out, struggling to sit  
up, but failing as the motion caused too much pain.  
  
The back door to Logan's car began to open slowly, as Original Cindy, who had climbed in the  
back seat stuck her head out, concerned for her friends' welfare.  
  
"Get back in!" Max yelled, not even looking back to see who it was. The door closed again.  
  
"What did you do to my son, four-five-two?" White demanded.  
  
"I got him the hell away from you, you murderous son of a bitch!" Max yelled. "Now I'm gonna  
be the one asking the questions, you got that?" she said, pointing to the gun with her free hand,  
for emphasis. "Why *are* you exposing yourself, here and now?"  
  
"Freak!" someone shouted from the crowd, as if to emphasize that point.  
  
"I'm tired of you thinking that because you're the leader of our people, that you think you're  
better than the rest of us!" White covered, trying to convince the crowd that he was a transgenic,  
so they wouldn't ask questions and find out the truth. Of course, Max wasn't going to let him do  
that.  
  
"Now that's an insult," Alec muttered, trying to stop the flow of blood from his wound.  
  
"You're not one of us!" Max said. "Now cut the shit, you breeding cult psycho! This man," she  
began, addressing the crowd, "is the result of a thousand year old breeding cult, hell bent on  
pulling a Pinky and the Brain. Except, instead of some cheesy scheme, he just wants to wipe  
out-"  
  
Max was cut off as White launched himself at her, knocking the gun from her grasp and tackling  
her to the ground. He pinned her down and punched her repeatedly in the face.  
  
"Max!" Alec said. He rolled over, trying to ignore the pain, and staggered to his feet. In a haze  
of pain, he stepped towards them and kicked White off her.  
  
Max leapt to her feet and kicked White in the face.  
  
Alec collapsed to his knees. Right next to the pipe the man had swung at him. He picked it up.   
"Max, catch!" he yelled, and tossed it to her. She caught it and swung it downwards, connecting  
with White's head and knocking him out cold.  
  
Max rushed over to Alec and knelt next to his side. She took off her jacket and pressed it to his  
wound. She helped him stand up. "I'd give you guys a big speech on White and his breeding cult  
buddies, but I have to get my friend to a doctor," she told the crowd.  
  
As Max was helping Alec into the back seat of the car with Original Cindy, two boys ran from the  
crowd to Asha. "Hey!" Max snarled. "Who the hell are you?"  
  
"I'm Jake, and this is Mac," said a young red-haired kid. "Asha's his cousin."  
  
Max nodded. "We got her," said Mac.  
  
"Alright," Max said. "Take care of her and be careful." She got in the car.  
  
***  
  
OC carefully climbed back into the front of the car, trying not to jar Alec as she went. Max  
cradled his head in her lap and pressed her jacket to his wound. "You're gonna be ok," she  
whispered to Alec.  
  
Alec nodded slowly. He looked into Max's eyes. "Thanks," he whispered, then he went slack.  
  
"Logan!" Max said. "Step on it!"  
  
"Where to?" Logan asked.  
  
"The hospital," Max replied, reaching into Alec's jacket pocket and handing his cell phone up to  
the front. "Call Dr. Shankar."  
  
"On it."  
  
"Hold on, Alec, hold on," Max whispered, for the second time that night.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
I know, I could have thought of something better for Alec to say than "Thanks" but actually, I  
couldn't think of anything at the moment. And no, he's not gonna say "I love you" yet. He  
knows he's not gonna die anyway, and he and Max aren't to that point. Yet!  
  
Reviews are always welcome, and loved.  
  
Oh, and I'd like to do a little poll with everyone. This may have absolutely nothing to do with  
Dark Angel, but I'd like to know. Please humor me, this is my first poll on ff.net.  
  
How many of you a scary traditionalists, in the way that you always eat the red ones last?   
(Smarties question, for the slow ones, lol) I always eat the red ones last, and all in one mouthful!   
(I'd hate to see me with a box of all red smarties . . .) Anyway, humor me, please.  
  
DO YOU EAT THE RED ONES LAST?  
  
Whatever happened to that slogan anyway? 


	7. Breathing

You people are making me cry here! You spit on sad little traditions! Throughout my 15 years  
of life the red ones have always been there! How can you not spare them 'til last? :(  
  
Don't worry people. We're in the same boat. I'm absolutely terrified of myself also.  
  
Come on people! Does ANYONE eat the red ones last? I'll tell you what. Whoever reviews  
(or maybe you should email because of that whole rule-thing, I don't quite get that) who DOES  
eat the red ones last will get themselves a nice, happy box of Smarties. When they go  
out and buy one.  
  
. . . She just might be out of her mind . . .  
. . . And I say: yeah, yeah  
Oh man, she's got issues and I'm gonna pay . . .  
. . . I don't know why you're messed up . . .  
. . . Do me a favour, and check your baggage at the door . . .  
. . . Oh man, she's got issues . . .  
. . . My god, she's got issues . . .  
  
-Various assorted lyrics from She's Got Issues by The Offspring. Does anyone else find it  
amazingly and scarily coincidental that I just happened to be listening to that song when I started  
writing this sad little rant?  
  
Annnnyway . . . On with the story.  
  
One more thing first. With the way I keep saying crazy things and going on to say that I'm scared  
of and/or disgusted with myself, is anyone else beginning to suspect that I have multiple  
personalities? And one of them is insane? (OK, I know, if I have multiple personalities, then I'm  
insane anyway. . . .)  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
There was a mad rush as Alec was brought into the operating room. Max ran along side of him as  
they wheeled him in. She was ushered out of the room as the doctors began to operate.  
  
Max collapsed onto a chair and leaned her head against the wall. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she  
hissed, banging her head against the wall with each repetition.  
  
"Max!" OC said, rushing up to her. "You okay, boo?" She sat down next to her. Sketchy sat on  
the other side with his arm around her shoulders. Logan stood a distance away, looking worried  
as hell, but probably not for Alec.  
  
"Do I look okay?!?" Max yelled. "Sorry . . . I . . . I . . . Sorry. It's just- I was so stupid! I just  
stood there and let White SHOOT him!"  
  
"Boo, it wasn't your fault. What do you think you really coulda done? You both were worn out,  
beat up, and-"  
  
"Sure, but what was I thinking? That White didn't have a gun on him? What kind of idiot tries to  
assassinate two X5s without bringing a gun?" Max slumped down and put her head in her hands,  
with her elbows on her knees. "He better be alright, or I'm gonna kick his ass," she mumbled.  
  
"He'll be fine, boo. He's strong, like you."  
  
A while later, Doctor Shankar emerged from the room where they had operated on Alec. "Max?"  
she said.  
  
Max's head snapped up. "Is he alright?" -Of COURSE he's alright,- a little voice in her head  
nagged at her. -He's ALWAYS alright.-  
  
"He's fine," replied Dr. Shankar. "We're just going to move him to somewhere more  
comfortable, and then you can visit with him," she said, even as several nurses wheeled Alec out  
of the room.  
  
Max gasped at his appearance. He was out cold, pale from blood loss, covered in bandages with  
several tubes attached to his body.  
  
In a haze of worry, Max followed him as he was wheeled to his room. Original Cindy and the  
others trailed behind. "Okay, we're just going to get him settled in, you can see him in a minute,"  
Dr. Shankar informed them.  
  
"Aiight," OC replied quietly, her voice hoarse.  
  
Max could hear the doctors and nurses rushing around in Alec's room, getting him settled in and  
hooked up. They all filed out after awhile, and Max was told she could go in, but not to disturb  
him, as he needed his rest.  
  
She sat in a chair at his side and gingerly grasped his hand and kissed it. "Don't you ever do that  
again," she whispered, not sounding at all angry, just scared. "Do you have any idea . . ." she  
trailed off, with tears spilling down her cheeks. "Do you have any idea how much I need you?"   
Max prayed for him to open his eyes and gloat over her admitting that. But of course, he did not.   
-He's fine, remember?- the little voice came back asking. It just didn't feel like he was fine. He  
had almost died because of her.  
  
***  
  
Logan collapsed into a chair in the waiting room with his head in his hands. He loved Max so  
much, and she was obviously hurting, her boyfriend had just been shot. And Logan wanted to  
hold her so much, to tell her that everything was gonna be alright, to kiss her forehead and hug  
her tightly. But she was no longer his to hold, even if the virus didn't prevent any kind of contact.  
  
"You alright Logan?" Sketchy asked, sitting next to him.  
  
"No," Logan stated. "The woman I love is in love with another man who just got shot, and I  
can't even hold her."  
  
"Whoa, whoa! What?!?!?" Sketchy exclaimed. "Max and Alec? Together? Dude, what are you  
on, 'cause I want some a that crazy shit! Max and Alec can't even stand to be in the same room  
for five minutes!"  
  
"Huh? They're not together? But she-- " Realization hit Logan like a ton of bricks. He got up  
and walked Alec's room, fully intending to confront Max about lying to him. She tore his heart to  
pieces with a lie to keep him away. He reached Alec's room and opened the door soundlessly.  
  
Max sat beside Alec, holding his hand in hers and sobbing. "Please, Alec," she begged. "Please  
wake up, I need you, please."  
  
Logan was shocked. -She needs him?-  
  
"I love you . . ." Max whispered, not even seeing Logan standing behind her.  
  
Logan quietly walked out and shut the door. It looked like the lie had just become the truth.  
  
***  
  
"I love you . . ." Max whispered, and a fresh set of tears rushed down her cheeks.  
  
Alec stirred.  
  
"Alec?" Max whispered.  
  
"Ugh . . . Max?" His eyes fluttered open.  
  
"Yeah, it's me," Max said, unable to keep the grin from spreading across her features.  
  
Alec closed his eyes, still obviously awake.  
  
"Are you alright?" Max asked.  
  
"Of course Max," he replied. "I'm always-- "  
  
Max cut him off. "Alec."  
  
Alec sighed and winced at the pain it caused him. He opened his eyes. "Did I get shot or was I  
used as a landing pad for a crashing helicopter?"  
  
"That would be door number one."  
  
"Ah, I see."  
  
The two of them fell into a companionable silence, staring into each others eyes, with Max still  
holding Alec's hand tightly.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
~~~I'm finding my way back to sanity again  
~~~Though I don't really know what I'm gonna do when I get there  
~~~I take a breath and hold on tight  
~~~Spin around one more time  
~~~And gracefully fall back to the arms of grace  
  
~~~'Cause I am hanging on every word you're saying  
~~~Even if you don't wanna speak tonight  
~~~That's alright, alright with me  
~~~'Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside heaven's door  
~~~And listen to you breathing  
~~~It's where I wanna be, yeah  
~~~Where I wanna be  
  
~~~I'm looking past the shadows in my mind into the truth  
~~~And I'm trying to identify the voices in my head  
~~~God wish won't you  
~~~Let me feel one more time what it feels like to feel  
~~~And break these calluses off of me one more time  
  
~~~'Cause I am hanging on every word you're saying  
~~~Even if you don't wanna speak tonight  
~~~That's alright, alright with me  
~~~'Cause I want nothing more than to sit outside your door  
~~~And listen to you breathing  
~~~It's where I wanna be, yeah  
  
-Lifehouse: Breathing  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
I finally got it up and posted! So what do you think?  
  
P.S. I'm working on both "Ain't It Funny" and "It Matters, or Does It?" so expect updates at  
some point in the nearish future. 


	8. Mad I Tell You! Mad!

I need to ask you guys a favour. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, but it will make me  
insanely happy if you do. Could you please all take five minutes to click on my Author profile  
thingy, and R and R my two stories "Two Little Pigs and A Llama," and "Same Story" (poem  
actually, but ssh!)? Please? I only have one and two reviews because the people who submit  
originals and stuff, I don't think they ever go into those sections! (I do sometimes!) Anyway, it'll  
make me insanely happy. Come on people spread the love! Start a chain! Put a smile on my  
face, and maybe I'll put one on someone else's, and they'll put one on someone else's. . . . If you  
won't do it for me, do it for the chain!  
  
L.C.: Thank you, you don't know who much that means to me. And..... I'll consider it. Mwa ha  
ha ha! MWA HA HA HA! Mwa . . . . . . . . . . Anyway.  
  
Synthera: All my stories are a priority. I think I've finally gotten over my little writer's block for  
this story, maybe, just maybe, updates will come faster now. Thanx for reviewing.  
  
On with the story. Thanx for the reviews everyone!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alec lay in the hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling, and counting the different objects he could  
see in the stains. Since he had just been *shot*, the hospital had decided to keep him in over  
night, but he and Max knew that he could stay no longer than that, because White would be  
looking for them. Max herself had long since fallen asleep at Alec's side, considering it was past  
2:00 AM, and she refused to let anyone drive her out of the room, and she had had a loooong,  
tiring day.  
  
Alec had as well, especially the part about having been *shot*, but no matter how hard he tried,  
he couldn't seem to get to sleep. After all, someone had to keep on alert for White.  
  
The room was completely silent, except for the ever consistent beeping of his heart monitor.   
There was no radio, and there was no TV. Obviously, there was no budget for such things in a  
post-pulse hospital.  
  
Needless to say, Alec was bored out of his mind.  
  
The stains were beginning to blur together, and Alec's eyes were beginning to glaze over. That's  
was happened when one stared at the exact same spot for hours on end.  
  
Alec groaned. This was gonna be a loooong night.  
  
A nurse quietly poked her head in the door to check on him.  
  
Seemingly satisfied that Alec was still alive and recovering, she was about to pull away, when  
Alec frantically motioned with his arms for her to come in. She tip-toed into the room, careful  
not to wake Max.  
  
"Listen," Alec whispered. "I'm having a little trouble sleeping. Do you think you could-"  
  
"Oh, do you want something to put you to sleep?" the nurse interrupted.  
  
"No! No, I just- do you think you can get me something to read or . . . something?"  
  
"Sure thing," the nurse replied. "Need anything else?"  
  
"No, thank you. That'll be fine."  
  
The nurse nodded and tip-toed back out.  
  
"Thank god," Alec whispered, letting his head fall back to the pillow. He glanced up at the  
ceiling. "Oh!" he exclaimed quietly. "23!"  
  
***  
  
Ten minutes later, the nurse poked her head back in.  
  
"67 . . ." Alec mumbled, then he noticed her. "Thank god," he whispered.  
  
"I . . . uh," the nurse tiptoed in. "I couldn't find any magazines other than the Old Peoples'  
People, but I thought you might enjoy this." She handed him a small booklet.  
  
"Oookay," Alec said, reading the title. "Mad Libs."  
  
"Oh, you don't want it?" the nurse asked, taking it from him.  
  
"Wait, wait, no!" Alec hissed frantically. "It's perfect! Perfect!"  
  
"Alright, well I'll leave you to it. Here's a pen."  
  
"A pen? What do I need a pen for?" Alec asked, genuinely not knowing why he needed a pen.  
  
"Uh . . ." the nurse said, giving him a weird and unnerving look.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Uh . . . I think you'll be able to figure it out." The nurse cautiously crept away. If he didn't  
know what Mad Libs were, then she wanted nothing to do with him.  
  
***  
  
Max awoke in the morning to hear Alec giggling hysterically. The bed was shaking. That was  
what had woken her.  
  
"Alec, what the hell . . ." Max mumbled groggily.  
  
"Ssh, ssh! Listen to this!" Alec said, barely containing his laughter long enough to talk. He  
cleared his throat. "One of the most funky horror films ever made was "Night of the Living  
Deadbeats." It's about seven chickens who try to hide from some zombies. These are not  
gloomy zombies. These zombies are cannibals, which means they eat zebras. As you can  
imagine, the movie gets pretty tweaked. The zombies walk strongly and have hip eyes, which  
makes them look creepy. When the people see them, they shout "Yeah!" and "Oh the  
familiarity!" and try to hop away. If you want to know what happens, rent the movie at your local  
rubber ball store. Warning . . . don't shoot it alone." After struggling through the whole  
narration, Alec finally let loose a fit of giggles.  
  
Max simply arched a perfect eyebrow in his direction. "Uh huh," she said dryly.  
  
Alec couldn't stop giggling. "It's . . . hilarious . . ."  
  
"No. It's dumb."  
  
Alec sunk back down onto the bed. "Leave me alone, I'm tired," he whined.  
  
Max giggled. "Now that's funny!" Max sighed and smiled. "Give me that," she said, reaching  
for the book. "Let's try this again." She flipped through the book quickly. "Here's one. Wacko.   
Sound familiar?"  
  
"There's one in there about you?" Alec asked, grinning.  
  
"If you weren't in a hospital bed I'd smack you."  
  
"Ouch." Alec pouted jokingly.  
  
Max rolled her eyes. "The whole point of that sentence was that I *didn't* smack you."  
  
"Just continue with the thingy," Alec said, gesturing toward the book.  
  
"Okay. Give me an adjective."  
  
"Uh . . . mischievous."  
  
"My turn. A celebrity . . . Eyes Only."  
  
"You had to bring him into this?" Alec asked.  
  
"Why do you care?"  
  
"I don't. My turn."  
  
Max was still wondering why *he* had a problem with *her* bringing up Logan, but she let it  
drop. "Name of girl in room."  
  
"Duh."  
  
"There's no one here by that name," Max teased.  
  
"Max," Alec said, dragging out the name.  
  
"A number . . . 452. Same celebrity."  
  
"Duh."  
  
"No, Alec. It was Eyes Only."  
  
"Shut up."  
  
"Me now. Noun . . . stick."  
  
"Stick?"  
  
"Something I'd enjoy beating you with."  
  
Alec rolled his eyes.  
  
"Verb ending in 'ing'."  
  
"Annoying."  
  
"This isn't about you either, you know. Noun . . . battering ram."  
  
"Battering ram?"  
  
"Just popped into my head. Adjective."  
  
"Beautiful." Alec was staring at Max, but she didn't notice, still looking at the book.  
  
"Same celebrity: Eyes Only. Noun."  
  
"Pretty girl."  
  
"Ah, how cute," Max said.  
  
"Yeah, some of the nurses here are pretty good looking."  
  
Max was a little disappointed. She'd been hoping he was talking about her. "Noun again . . .  
wish."  
  
"Wish?"  
  
"I wish you'd shut up. Noun."  
  
"Love."  
  
"Feeling mushy today?"  
  
"Sure, why not."  
  
"Noun AGAIN . . . confused mind. Verb, past tense."  
  
"Shot."  
  
"NOUN . . . bullet. And last but not least, in amount anyway . . . drum roll . . . noun."  
  
"Chance."  
  
"Okay, here goes. Wacko. In this mischievous horror film, Eyes Only plays a person who runs a  
motel. When Max steals 452 dollars, she goes there to hide. Too bad, because Eyes Only's stick  
goes into her room and starts annoying her with a battering ram while she is in the shower. Pretty  
soon, she is beautiful."  
  
Alec interrupted her. "You know, you kinda are beautiful when you're annoyed."  
  
Max was speechless. Alec thought she was beautiful? "Uh . . . uh . . . where was- oh yeah. Uh,  
then Eyes Only (Alec winced. It was always *him.* *He* always got in the way.) dumps her  
pretty girl in a wish, along with the love she stole. When a confused mind comes looking for her,  
he gets shot, too. In the final bullet, we find out that the motel owner is normal. It's the owner's  
chance who is wacko!"  
  
"Not as funny as the last one," Alec commented.  
  
"Yeah, well, the last one wasn't funny. Hmm, in this one, Normal owns a motel . . ." Max said.   
"Ok, you ask this time, and I'll give all the answers."  
  
"Well that's not fair!" Alec complained.  
  
"I'll ask you after."  
  
"OK!" Alec flipped through the book. "The Glob. Sounds overly pleasant. Plural noun."  
  
Max scrunched up her face, looking incredibly cute. "Uh . . . Mad Libs."  
  
"Oh, I bet that one took some effort. Verb, past tense."  
  
"Savagely beat."  
  
"Ooh. Mee-ow. A color."  
  
"Hot pink."  
  
"Eew."  
  
"What's wrong with hot pink?" Max asked, all innocence.  
  
"What's NOT wrong with hot pink? Answer that one. No, on second thought, I don't even  
wanna know. A geographical location."  
  
"Uh . . . Seattle."  
  
"That's some real tough ones you're coming up with there Max. A food."  
  
"Mickey Mouse shaped jello."  
  
"There we go. What-shaped what-now?"  
  
"Mickey . . . you don't know who Mickey Mouse is?" Max's eyes almost popped out of her head.   
"But you're a TV nut!"  
  
"Gee Max, stop. You're gonna spoil me with your compliment rush. Annnnnnywayyy . . . Plural  
noun."  
  
"TV nuts."  
  
"Another food."  
  
"Chocolate orangutans."  
  
"I somehow doubt that's a food."  
  
"It is now."  
  
"Okay then, verb, past tense."  
  
"Created."  
  
"Adverb."  
  
"Lightly."  
  
"Verb."  
  
"Escape."  
  
"Another verb."  
  
"Evade."  
  
"Annnd, verb, past tense."  
  
"Mixed."  
  
"Annnnnd, adjective."  
  
"Purple-ish."  
  
"Annnnnnnnd, adverb."  
  
"Hungrily."  
  
"Hmm, you know, I *am* hungry, now that you mention it." Alec frowned, holding a hand over  
his stomach.  
  
"Well maybe later we'll get you some jello. Probably not Mickey Mouse shaped."  
  
"Could ya stop with the thingy-shaped do-hicky? Noun."  
  
"Jello."  
  
"Verb. Past tense." He stressed and forced out each word in mock anger.  
  
Max narrowed her eyes menacingly. "Castrated."  
  
Alec squeaked with fright and raised his knees to protect 'himself.' "Max! Don't scare me like  
that!"  
  
Max giggled.  
  
"Moving on!" Alec said. "Let's read the stupid thing. It is a well known fact that Mad Libs have  
been watching Earth from outer space for years. One day, not too long ago, they decided to do a  
test of humans. They savagely beat their hot pink spaceship close to Earth and dropped the Glob  
in Seattle. The Glob was disgusting. It was made of 100, 000 pounds of Mickey Mouse shaped  
jello and 200, 000 pounds of mashed up TV nuts. It smelled like rotten chocolate orangutans.   
The Glob created very lightly and consumed everything in its path. The government decided to  
escape the Glob up with the space shuttle and evade it into space; however, the Glob fell off and  
mixed in New Jersey. The Glob climbed onto a purple-ish pile of garbage and hungrily consumed  
it. The world was overjoyed, but with every jello the Glob ate, it castrated larger and larger."  
  
Max grinned. "Mine was better than yours."  
  
Alec ignored her. "It castrated larger and larger . . . that means I'll be the last man to suffer the  
horrible fate."  
  
Max grimaced. "I don't need to know your thoughts, or the actual info on such matters."  
  
"Your loss."  
  
"Eew."  
  
Alec shoved the book into Max's hands. "My turn!"  
  
"Let's make this one quick," Max said.  
  
"OK."  
  
"Adjective."  
  
"Bubbly."  
  
"Name of girl in room: Max. Part of the body."  
  
"Trigger finger."  
  
"Another one."  
  
"Heart."  
  
"Name of boy in room: Alec. Number."  
  
"494."  
  
"Adjective."  
  
"Wonderful."  
  
"Don't be so full of yourself. Verb."  
  
"Whatever. Bounce."  
  
"Don't you whatever me. Adjective."  
  
"Why not? Bouncy."  
  
"Because. Verb: ing."  
  
"Because why? Bouncing."  
  
"Shut up. Plural noun."  
  
"Make me. Bouncy balls."  
  
"What's with the bounce? Verb."  
  
"Something to say. Jump."  
  
"Adjective."  
  
"Boingy."  
  
"And verb."  
  
"Flip."  
  
"Okay, here goes. The Frogs. In-"  
  
"Good thing I stuck with the bounce."  
  
"Shut. Up. In this bubbly horror film, Max falls trigger finger over heart in love with Alec. She  
gives him 494 frogs as a gift. Then, at a wonderful party, all the frogs in town bounce everybody  
there. Nobody knows why the frogs are so bouncy. Pretty soon, the frogs are bouncing people  
all the time with their bouncy balls. After a while, the frogs jump away. Everybody is very  
boingy, but the never flip at frogs the same way again."  
  
The two of them sat in silence for a moment.  
  
"Ugh," Max said. "This is all wrong. Lemme fix this." She looked back over the story. "Ah,  
here we go. In this bubbly horror film, Max falls head over heels in love with Logan. There.   
That's better."  
  
"You can't do that," Alec said, not kidding at all. "It said name of boy in the room. Logan's not  
here."  
  
"Oh well, he's in the building somewhere, that doesn't matter."  
  
"Whatever," Alec said, no longer sounding happy.  
  
"I . . . uh, I have to go . . . somewhere. Work! I have to go to work," Max said hastily, standing  
from her chair and leaving quickly.  
  
When she was gone, Alec picked up the Mad Libs book and tore it in half, throwing the pieces  
across the room.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Whew! That was a long one. At least I finally updated. I don't own Mad Libs, and "Night of the  
Living Deadbeats," "Wacko," "The Glob," and "The Frogs" are all part of "Wacky, Spooky, Silly  
Mad Libs" (Halloween edition), so I don't own them either.  
  
BTW, I'll explain the title change next chapter, which I'll hopefully have written and posted soon. 


	9. Once Again, OW!

Disclaimer: Don't own Dark Angel. Don't own Dark Angel's characters. Don't own Mad Libs.   
Don't own the title: Break Stuff. Break Stuff belongs to Limp Bizkit.  
  
Title Change: I realized, that What A Day! has what I like to call, a "break stuff" theme. If you  
ever listen to the song, it's entire theme is pretty much explained in this line: It's just one of those  
days. A "break stuff" theme, is when everything goes wrong every five minutes for one character.   
From the moment they wake up, their day is screwed. In the last five minutes of their day,  
something either catastrophically bad will happen, or something really good will happen to make  
up for the entire day. This entire story pretty much has a "break stuff" theme, but the next few  
chapters, from the moment someone (you'll find out who when you read) wakes up, will pretty  
much be the definition of a "break stuff" theme.  
  
Caderyn: The crowd: Let's just pretend the pulse took out all computers *including* the human  
brain. And Asha: I'm not sure how I feel about her anymore. With reading "Twisted" by Brin and  
writing "Ain't It Funny" she's growing on me. Not like in "Help the sorry person who reads  
this." And Joshua: I'll include him soon, thanx for the reminder. I enjoyed writing the 'wave to  
White' scene. Thanx for the wonderful, specific, and constructive reviews. This Chap's for you.  
  
Dedication: To Caderyn, for above reasons.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
At two o'clock in the afternoon, Logan came to pick Alec up, at Max's request. Max herself was  
nowhere to be seen. Avoiding him, no doubt.  
  
Alec wasn't as excited as he should have been about escaping the boring, boring hospital. He was  
feeling a little on the depressed side since Max had left.  
  
He had to be brought out of the hospital in a wheel chair for appearance's sake. After all, he had  
just been shot the previous day. It might be a little suspicious if he just jumped up and walked  
out.  
  
"So Logan," Alec said from the passenger seat of Logan's Aztec. "You headin' to Crash  
tonight?"  
  
"Probably not. You're not going, are you?" Logan asked, turning toward Alec.  
  
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Alec asked.  
  
"Well for one thing, you just got shot."  
  
Alec rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah! I forgot the burning sensation of a piece of metal tearing through  
my abdomen and the dull throb I'm feeling at this very moment because it's not yet healed!   
Thanks for reminding me, Logan!"  
  
"There's no need to be sarcastic," Logan said, watching the road ahead of him. "I just mean you  
might tear your stitches or something."  
  
"To hell with the stitches, I need a drink," Alec said.  
  
"Weelllll," Logan drawled. "Okay then. Here we go; home sweet home." He pulled up in front  
of Alec's building.  
  
"Dude, what are you on?" Alec asked. "Or what dream world are you living in? This place is a  
dump."  
  
"I'm not 'on' anything!" Logan said. "I wish people would stop asking me that."  
  
"'Cause you're in the right, it's the many other billions of people in the world who are wrong,"  
Alec said sarcastically, getting out of the Aztec as Logan pulled away.  
  
***  
  
Crash was packed that night. Original Cindy could've sworn the entire staff of Jam Pony was  
present, aside from Normal. Then there was the desperate drunks, the 'I need a break from life'  
crowd, the 'I'm underage so I absolutely must be here' crowd, and the uncategorizable extras,  
who were plentiful, just like every other group. And yet somehow, her, Max, Sketchy and Alec  
seemed to have plenty of room at their usual table. Of course, they couldn't step outside the  
bubble without being crushed among the bodies, but it seemed a little strange that no one ever  
took their table. Original Cindy supposed that was because they had left a psychic reserved sign.  
  
Or maybe they had become *the* crowd. The group which you could find in any club, who  
seemed to own the place, and had been there so long they might as well move their stuff in.  
  
Despite the giant crowd, Original Cindy couldn't help but feel that the place seemed quiet.   
Sketchy was fidgeting in his seat, nervously looking between Max and Alec, while drinking a beer.   
Max and Alec themselves sat in silence. Alec was drinking like a beer fountain in reverse, and  
Max wouldn't even touch her glass. An air of discomfort hung throughout the entire room.  
  
The silence was scary. *Alec* wasn't even talking. He didn't even look at one girl in the entire  
place, especially Max. It looked kinda like they were invisible to each other. Neither one would  
even acknowledge the other's presence. Something was obviously up. They weren't even  
*insulting* each other.  
  
Original Cindy wanted desperately to say something to interrupt the silence, but the words just  
wouldn't come to her. -Think dammit!- she said to herself.  
  
"So-" she choked out, her voice hoarse. She coughed into her hand. "H-how's the- the- the-"  
Original Cindy sighed. From out of nowhere, she reached to her right and slapped Sketchy in the  
face. All faces at the table snapped toward her, aside from Sketchy's which snapped away from  
her.  
  
It was as if the entire building had been playing like some tape in slow motion, and suddenly, with  
a smooth rip noise, everything skipped to normal speed. And the volume skyrocketed. Finally,  
the two transgenics had snapped out of their strange little funk.  
  
"What the hell was that for?" Sketchy yelled.  
  
"Yeah, OC, what the hell?" Max asked.  
  
Alec simply stared at her, looking shocked and confused. He wasn't speaking, dammit! Original  
Cindy glared angrily at Alec, then pulled back her arm, turned towards Sketchy, and punched him  
in the face, knocking him right out his chair.  
  
"Jesus, OC!" Alec said. "What the hell's the problem?"  
  
"Nothing!" Original Cindy said, smiling, even though Sketchy lay on the floor at that very  
moment, uttering numerous curses about females in general. Mission accomplished. "Nothing at  
all." She stood up, held a hand down to Sketchy and helped him rise to his feet.  
  
"OC, why-" Sketchy began, but Original Cindy interrupted him.  
  
"Look at those two!" she said, gesturing towards Max and Alec. "They look so . . . alive." She  
made herself sound like a proud mother who just watched her children walk into school for the  
first time. She put her hand to her mouth and put on an expression of trying to fight back tears of  
joy.  
  
"Ooookay then," Alec said, rolling his eyes. He turned to Max. "She's obviously gone insane."  
  
Max smirked lightly. "Obviously."  
  
"Well," Alec said, standing up. Original Cindy frowned. He was all funky again. "It's almost  
two and I'm tired, so I'm gonna head home." He put on his jacket, and picked up his bottle of  
beer. He began to walk away, but then he turned back. Looking at Sketchy, he said, "You might  
wanna put some ice on that." He left.  
  
Original Cindy looked down at Max. Max was chugging her beer. It was gone within moments,  
and she poured herself another glass. When she drank, she closed her eyes. When she poured,  
she stared off into space. Funky Max was back too, with a vengeance.  
  
Original Cindy hauled off and smacked Sketchy in the back of the head.  
  
Poor Sketchy almost cried at the continuing abuse.  
  
***  
  
The night air felt cool and calming on Alec's overheated skin. Alec took a deep breath and let it  
fill his lungs. He exhaled slowly, watching his breath curl around in the air like smoke. He began  
to walk.  
  
For hours, he walked. He thought about what had happened earlier that day with Max. They  
were clicking so well. They had had their usual playful banter, making threats they both knew  
they wouldn't take so far as they could throw the space needle. They had been friendly. There  
had been a tad bit of romance. Alec had been warming up to telling her how he really felt about  
her. He had hinted, but she hadn't noticed. But she had been becoming more comfortable around  
him, becoming closer. And when their names had been put together in that stupid little book . . .  
she had drawn back. It was that simple. She had brought up Logan to propel herself away.  
  
And he had let her. He could have told her right out how he felt, he could have asked her to stay,  
but he didn't. He just let her walk out, and then he had tried to pretend like everything was  
alright. Just like it always was. Only it never really *was.*  
  
Alec sighed. He continued to walk, to think.  
  
Who was he kidding? Max hadn't even been trying to push him away. It was just a subtle hint.   
'I love Logan, not you.' That was what she had really been saying when she changed the names.   
'Dream on, loser.' Alec was stuck. He was stuck loving a woman who would never realize it,  
and would spend the rest of her life chasing after a guy she could never be with.  
  
And Alec was stuck alone.  
  
Alec stopped where he was standing, on a side walk, god knows where. He looked around. In  
actual fact, he knew where too. Just outside the fence surrounding Terminal City.  
  
Alec sighed again, looked around to make sure no one saw him, and leapt the fence with ease.   
The landing, however, wasn't quite so pleasant, and Alec felt pain explode through his abdomen.   
He grunted and leaned over, arms crossed over his wound. After a few moment's he  
straightened, shrugged it off, and journeyed into TC.  
  
***  
  
Mole was leaning against the side of a building in TC, cleaning his gun and talking to a cat  
anomaly, when he saw the silhouette of a man walking in his general direction. An ordinary man,  
or at the very least, not an anomaly.  
  
Mole signaled for his friend to be quiet and the two of them backed into a darkened doorway.   
They waited in silence for the man to approach.  
  
***  
  
Alec kept his eyes and ears opened as he walked towards the center of Terminal City. The  
anomalies around here weren't exactly fond of Xs. He wasn't sure why, maybe because, back at  
Manticore, they got to breathe fresh air, go outside, and eat on a regular basis. Plus they could  
pass as human. Well, whatever the reason for the anomalies' dislike, Alec didn't want to be  
caught off guard like he had been last time.  
  
Unfortunately, it was too late to worry about stopping it.  
  
As Alec stepped silently by a doorway, a boot came out from the door unexpectedly and caught  
him in the gut. Alec hit the ground, smacking his head hard on the pavement. He didn't even  
notice, however, the pain in his wound was too intense. It wasn't exactly a good idea to go out  
and get kicked in the same place you had just got shot in the previous day.  
  
Alec rolled onto his side an clutched his stomach, moaning in agony. He felt fresh blood seeping  
through his shirt and onto his hands.  
  
Two anomalies stepped from the shadows, and stood over him, looking down as he writhed in  
pain. "494," said the lizard anomaly recognizing him from the whole Sam and White hostage  
situation. "You should've known better than to come back."  
  
"What the hell is your pro-problem?" Alec asked weakly.  
  
Mole grinned. "You." He leaned down and pushed Alec's shoulder, rolling him onto his back.   
"Let me see," he said. Alec lifted his hands. "Jesus," Mole said, worry creeping into his voice as  
he noticed the blood all over Alec's shirt and opened jacket. "Sector cops?"  
  
"White," Alec replied. "Don't worry, it was yesterday, he's not after me."  
  
Mole nodded. "Let's get you inside."  
  
"What?" said the cat anomaly, speaking for the first time since Alec had arrived. "He's an X, he's  
not our problem."  
  
"Just because we don't like him, doesn't mean we have to leave him here to bleed to death," Mole  
said.  
  
"Geez," Alec choked out. "Optimistic." Just then he noticed the pounding in his head. He  
reached his hand to the back of his head and felt more blood. "Shit," he whispered. He felt  
nauseous. Not a good feeling to mix with the pain in his gut. He groaned. "Could you make up  
your minds already?" he asked.  
  
"Can you walk?" Mole asked.  
  
"Does it look like I can walk right now?"  
  
Mole reached down and grabbed Alec's left hand. "Come on, help me out, Tom," he said to the  
cat anomaly. Tom sighed and walked around to the other side of Alec. Together, he and Mole  
hoisted him up carefully and brought him in to Head Quarters.  
  
There was no use in counting how many sneers and glares flew in Alec's direction as they entered  
HQ, there were too many. Plus, it really hurt his head to think right now. All Alec could  
concentrate on at the moment was the pain. Ow.  
  
Mole and Tom gestured for some anomalies to clear of a nearby table, and they lifted Alec onto it.   
Alec felt his shirt being ripped open, and heard a few commands go around for some medical  
thing or other, but he was too far gone to really acknowledge them.  
  
***  
  
Just like everyone else in HQ, Joshua turned to see what was going on when Mole and Tom  
entered, supporting some other guy and causing a hell of a lot of commotion. People began  
rushing around, searching for gauze and medical equipment and such. Someone was hurt. Joshua  
moved through the crowd to see who it was, as did many others.  
  
Needless to say, Joshua was a little shocked when he saw Alec on the table, barely conscious and  
covered in blood. "Alec!" he exclaimed.  
  
"Come on people, clear some space!" Mole yelled, trying to direct everyone around. "We need  
some blood over here!"  
  
Joshua came up behind Mole and poked him on the shoulder, rolling up his sleeve as Mole turned  
around. Mole immediately grabbed the needed tubing from the girl who handed it to him and  
connected Joshua to Alec, starting the stream of blood between them. "Is Alec gonna be alright?"  
Joshua asked Mole.  
  
"Once we stitch him up and get some blood in him, he should be fine," Mole assured him.  
  
"Good," Joshua said. He looked down at Alec as the medics got to work. "Medium Fella's  
gonna be alright," he told Alec, taking his hand.  
  
***  
  
"Alec." Alec heard someone calling his name in the distance. "Alec."  
  
"Five more minutes," Alec muttered, squeezing his eyes closed more tightly.  
  
"Alec!" Alec sighed and opened his eyes, to see Joshua looking down at him. The big guy  
looked worried.  
  
"Hey Josh," Alec said.  
  
"Hey Alec," Joshua replied, seeming quite pleased that Alec was awake.  
  
"How've you been, Big Fella?" Alec asked, still lying on the table.  
  
"B-better than you," Joshua replied.  
  
"That's a good thing, that is. A very good thing," Alec said, bringing his hand up to touch the  
back of his head. He winced at the contact. Well, he wasn't dead. He could still feel pain.  
  
"Why are you here?" Joshua asked.  
  
"Well it's nice to see you too," Alec said. "I was just walking around, found myself outside the  
fence, thought I'd come visit."  
  
"White . . . shot you?" You could see the anger in Joshua's eyes.  
  
"I'm fine, Joshua. It's nothing I can't handle."  
  
"White will pay," Joshua growled.  
  
"Someday, Josh. Not today, and not by you."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because if a transgenic just goes out and kills him, the humans will try to wipe us out. Try  
harder, anyway." Alec reached up his hand and put it on Joshua's shoulder. "Someday."  
  
Joshua nodded. "Something's bothering you."  
  
Alec nodded. It was no use trying to hide these things from Joshua. He could always tell what  
people were feeling. He was just gifted that way.  
  
"Max okay?"  
  
"Max is fine," Alec assured him.  
  
"You and Max not okay," Joshua concluded.  
  
"No, not really."  
  
"Did you hurt her?" Joshua asked.  
  
"Did I hurt her?" Alec said, getting angry. "Why do people always assume that I did something?   
Did anyone ever consider that I might be hurt?"  
  
Mole approached the two of them, sensing that things were getting a little uncomfortable. "I  
think it's time for you to be going," he said to Alec.  
  
Alec sighed and ignored him. "Look Joshua, I'm sorry. I just- I'm just a little on edge tonight. I  
didn't mean to snap at you."  
  
"Did you hear me?" Mole asked. "I said it's time for you to leave."  
  
"Hey!" Alec snapped. "You're the one who kicked me in bullet wound hard enough to almost  
break my skull on the pavement. Can I at least have a small conversation before you kick me  
out?"  
  
"No," Mole said.  
  
Alec looked at Joshua, then slowly got up off the table. "Fine," he said coldly. "I'll get out of  
your hair. Later Joshua." He walked out of HQ, managing to fight his temporary dizziness.  
  
"Bye Alec," Joshua said sadly, watching him go.  
  
***  
  
It was almost six in the morning when Alec got home, showered, and got to bed. Needless to say,  
he was a little on the tired side.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Next chapter: Break Stuff. 


	10. Break Stuff

Disclaimer: Oh, I don't own it!  
  
You might wanna pack all your fragile stuff in with bubble wrap, 'cause stuff is about to break.  
  
Chapter: Break Stuff  
  
Note: Though I may be creating a bit of a confused AU, the SAH shoot out never happened.  
  
(Caderyn: I'd take your advice and do the 24 thing, but there's only so much torture I can put  
Alec through before it gets to be . . . boring. I know that sounds impossible, but if I have 24  
chapters of torture, then it'd be pretty easy to just skip a few chapters and still know exactly  
what's going on. Kinda like Passions. I haven't watched the show in months (even then I only  
watched it for amusement) but everything's so dragged out that if I watched it tomorrow, it'd  
probably still have the same plot lines, you know what I'm saying? Thanx for your wonderful  
review though, I really appreciate it, especially the specificness. If that's a word. BTW, I'll try to  
include Asha soon.)  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
It was seven o'clock in the morning, and a loud crash could be heard all around the block.  
  
Alec snapped awake and fell out of bed, to land in a tangled heap of sheets on the floor.   
"Owww," he moaned. He had a major headache, which was caused by the nasty bump he had  
received last night, or rather this morning, and was added to by a slight hang over. It wasn't  
pleasant. But then again, what was lately?  
  
Not even bothering to try to untangle himself, Alec pulled some of the sheets up behind his head  
and lay down on the floor. He began to drift back to sleep.  
  
BANG! CRASH!  
  
Alec jumped awake again. He groaned in misery and attempted to untangle himself so he could  
go see what the hell was going on. After a few minutes, and several more crashes, plus a few  
choice words, Alec stood up. He moved to walk to his window, but fell face first to the floor,  
tripping in the sheets. "Ow, dammit!" he yelled.  
  
He lay on his chest on the floor and said a few more choice words. Then, making sure his feet  
were free, he stood up and moved to the kitchen, in desperate need of a coffee. He stopped. No,  
no coffee, he decided. -I'll just go right back to bed.-  
  
He turned around.  
  
CRASH!!!!  
  
Alec nearly jumped out of skin. He was so tired, he forgot all about his reason for being awake in  
the first place. He stomped over to the window. The building next door was being demolished,  
at a very slow pace.  
  
BANG!  
  
There was no use in trying to go back to sleep.  
  
Alec went into the kitchen and set the kettle to boil. He stood around and waited for it. He put  
four teaspoons of sugar, and two teaspoons of instant coffee into his cup and poured in the water.  
  
CRASH!  
  
He jumped again, spilling boiling water all over his hand. Alec yelped in pain. He turned on the  
cold water in his tap and put his scalded hand under it. Nothing came out. Alec growled and  
pulled his now red hand out and finished pouring.  
  
Alec stirred his coffee and took a long gulp.  
  
The first thing he noticed was that he forgot to let it cool down. So it burned his mouth, then it  
burned all the way down.  
  
The second thing he noticed was the urge to spit it all out, or throw it back up. -What the hell?-  
He coughed and fought to keep it down. His entire mouth now felt gritty. The coffee had been  
thick and disgusting.  
  
Alec looked at the sugar dish. Or rather, the flour dish. He winced. Gross. He threw his coffee  
down the drain, and settled for a coke from the fridge.  
  
He walked into the living room and plopped down onto the couch to drink it. He chuckled. At  
least he didn't have to worry about breakfast. After swallowing a mouthful of coffee flavoured  
liquid flour, he was not in the slightest bit hungry.  
  
CRASH!  
  
The noise caught Alec mid-sip, and he jumped, pouring coke all over himself. Alec growled  
angrily and threw the can across the room, taking out the giant pile of dishes on his counter.   
CRASH! Great, now he had something else to jump at. His nerves were fried.  
  
Alec pulled his now sticky self into the shower. He turned on the water, and was hit with a brown  
liquid, then a couple of seconds of clear, cold water, and then the stream promptly sputtered and  
died.  
  
The water for his block had probably been turned off to accommodate the destruction of the  
building next door. Angrily, Alec ripped off the shower head and threw it at the wall. It fell to  
the floor with a clank.  
  
CRASH!  
  
Alec jumped again and slipped, falling backwards in the shower. After hitting his head on the side  
of the tub, he lay there, closed his eyes, and waited for the pounding in his head to calm down a  
little. Then he counted to ten to calm his nerves. Then he prepared himself for it.  
  
There was no crash for a few minutes.  
  
Alec relaxed, maybe they were done.  
  
CRASH!  
  
Or not.  
  
***  
  
Alec dragged himself into work, half an hour late.  
  
"And what took you so long?" Normal asked. "You may be my rock star, but I can still fire your  
lazy, sleep ridden ass."  
  
"I left early," Alec snapped.  
  
"Then why are you so late, huh? Forgot how to get here and had to ask some street bum for  
directions?" Normal asked.  
  
"Traffic," Alec growled. Though he *had* headed out early, and could've arrived twenty minutes  
before his shift began, there had been a *major* delay at the checkpoint in sector 5, which had  
held him up for half an hour, then another one in sector 6, which kept him another twenty  
minutes.  
  
"Right, and the Nubian Princess really *is* sick, and Missy Miss really *does* have to take care  
of her."  
  
"What?" Alec asked.  
  
"You heard me, Miss Never-On-Time and her roommate didn't show up today. That means  
we're short handed, and you better get to work!" Normal tossed several packages at Alec, who  
tried to catch them, but lost his balance and fell once again.  
  
"Not again!" he yelled.  
  
"Bip!" Normal yelled back.  
  
Sketchy walked over to Alec and helped him up. "You alright?" he asked.  
  
"Fine," Alec growled. He picked up the packages off the floor.  
  
"Hey, aren't you guys supposed to have better reflexes?" Sketchy asked him, referring to  
transgenics.  
  
"Not today, apparently," Alec replied. He looked down at the packages in his arms. "Jesus, he's  
got me scattered all over the damn city!" Alec took a moment to glare at Normal, then got his  
bike and left Sketchy just standing there.  
  
"Bip, bip, bip!" Normal yelled, and Sketchy scampered away.  
  
***  
  
Trying to ignore the pounding in his head and his gut, Alec rode his bike past Foggle Towers. He  
looked briefly up at the building and turned back to the road, just in time to be too late to miss the  
rather large dog that chose that moment to cross the road.  
  
"Shit!" Alec yelled, he swerved to miss the animal, knowing that if he hit it, he'd probably end up  
killing them both, not to mention the woman who was walking the huge mutt. Alec's tires lost  
their grip in a puddle, and his front tire slipped to the right, causing Alec to flip right over and  
smack into the pavement.  
  
He rolled a couple of feet, and when he stopped, he noticed, once again too late, that his left leg  
landed straight in the path of an oncoming car. The car slammed on the brakes, but the driver's  
timing seemed to be off just a little too, and the front right tire rolled right over Alec's leg. Alec  
yelled out numerous curses.  
  
The car screeched to a halt, just short of running Alec over with its back tire as well. The car  
behind slammed on the brakes as well, and every other car behind it. Unfortunately, one car along  
the line didn't stop in time, smacking into the car in front of it, and therefore pushing it forward,  
along with all the cars ahead. Not to mention the first one.  
  
Before Alec knew what was happening, and before he could even use his transgenic reflexes to  
pull out of the way, the second tire rolled over his leg, and the front tire of the second car rolled  
halfway onto him.  
  
A nearby kid covered his ears with his hands to block out the sound of Alec's *loudly* voiced  
profanity.  
  
***  
  
Logan stared dazedly out the window, watching the cars pass by. -Max . . .- He missed her so  
much.  
  
He chuckled as a bike messenger rode past his building. Cute little reminder.  
  
Then said reminder flipped over and got ran over by a car.  
  
Logan frowned. It wasn't quite so cute anymore.  
  
Logan rushed downstairs and out of the building to check on whoever it was. With his luck, it  
probably was Max.  
  
He ran out the doors to hear more swearing than he ever had before in his life. The voice was  
male. Well, at least it wasn't Max trapped under a car.  
  
Better. It was Alec.  
  
***  
  
The driver of the first car jumped out and ran around to Alec. "Hey watch where you're going,  
buddy!" he yelled.  
  
Alec's shout of anger was so profane that the man chose to believe he had said, "Go to hell!"  
  
The driver hesitated. This guy was obviously pissed off. He could have told by the look on his  
face, without hearing the words from his mouth. "Hey, why don't you get up and say that to my  
face?" the driver yelled.  
  
"Does it LOOK to YOU like I can GET UP!" Alec roared.  
  
The driver studied Alec. It was only then he noticed that the poor guy had his leg trapped under  
the next car. "Oh!" he said. "Sorry man, I didn't notice, I thought I ran over the bike-"  
  
The driver winced. If his daughter had been here, he would've had to wash her ears out with  
soap.  
  
Suddenly, and thankfully, the doors to a nearby building burst open, and a man rushed over to  
them, appearing to recognize the guy. Hopefully, he could calm him down long enough for him  
and a few of the people who were also getting out of their cars to get him out. As it was at that  
moment, the driver was afraid that if anyone went near the stranded man, he'd tear them to  
pieces.  
  
"Alec! Are you alright?" Logan asked.  
  
"Does it LOOK like I'm alright? Hell NO! I am NOT ALRIGHT!" Alec roared.  
  
"Calm down!" Logan yelled back. "Stop acting like a friggin' maniac, and let someone help you  
out of there!"  
  
"Yes, sir," Alec mumbled tiredly, and he flopped down onto the pavement.  
  
"Thank god," the driver sighed. "It though he was gonna eat me alive."  
  
"I can still hear you," Alec growled.  
  
"Let's get him out of there before he decides to," Logan said. "Can you move your car ahead a  
little?" he asked the driver, who rushed away, glad to escape Alec.  
  
"Can we get a little help here, people?" Logan asked the people around him. Several men and  
women rushed over to help. Logan directed everyone to stand around the front of the car and  
prepare to lift it off of Alec. Logan asked the nearest woman to pull Alec out while the rest of  
them held up the car.  
  
"What, do you think that because I'm a woman, I can't help lift?" the woman asked snidely.  
  
"No, I think that because you're a woman, he's much less likely to attack you." Logan gestured  
to Alec, who lay on the pavement clenching and unclenching his fists, trying to keep himself from  
attempting to beat the car off of himself.  
  
"Now's not the time!" Alec yelled impatiently. He restrained from kicking the car's bumper. He  
might just lift it up a little and have it drop right back down. That would not be very nice.  
  
"Right," Logan said, rushing over to help lift the car, while the woman tentatively hooked her  
arms under Alec's shoulders. "On three," Logan said, "1 . . . 2 . . . 3!"  
  
The group lifted the car and the woman pulled Alec out, falling flat on her butt with the  
momentum. Alec almost laughed. At least it wasn't him falling this time.  
  
***  
  
As Asha approached Foggle Towers to report to Logan about a successful Eye's Only mission  
carried out the previous night by the S1W while she had been 'taking a break,' she heard  
shouting. Lot's of shouting. Then she heard what sounded like Logan, counting off to three.  
  
-Well, this is certainly interesting,- she thought, while rounding the corner and coming up to the  
front of the building. She saw seven or eight people lifting up a car at the front of a long line of  
fender benders. "Ooooookay!" she said, and continued walking toward the group.  
  
She poked the shoulder of a young teenage girl who was watching with interest. "Yeah?" the girl  
asked, not bothering to turn around. Asha stepped up beside her.  
  
"What's going on?" she asked.  
  
"Looks like some guy flipped his bike and got ran over by a car," the girl told her. "He's sure got  
a mouth on him. Pretty hot, though."  
  
Asha was a little disturbed that some guy had gotten run over and the girl was taking this as an  
opportunity to check him out, but that wasn't what was causing the feeling of dread in her  
stomach. Some guy flipped his bike. He's sure got a mouth on him. Pretty hot. Asha prayed the  
guy wasn't who she thought he was.  
  
But all the prayers in the world couldn't have changed who was under that car, they probably  
wouldn't want to. It seemed that the entire world hated Alec today.  
  
"Alec!" Asha exclaimed, when she saw Alec being pulled out. She rushed over to him. "Are you  
alright?!?"  
  
Alec shot a fierce glare at her, breathing deeply, trying to keep from screaming. He shook his  
head slowly, as if he had to fight to keep it on course.  
  
Logan joined her at his side. "Are you-"  
  
Alec jerked his head in Logan's direction, turning the glare on him.  
  
"Is it broken?" Logan asked tentatively.  
  
Alec shrugged slowly.  
  
"Can you walk?"  
  
Another shrug.  
  
Logan held out his hand to help Alec up. Alec took it, and stood, careful not to put all his weight  
on his bad leg at once. He tested it, putting on a little weight at a time, until he discovered that he  
could stand on that one leg, and not fall over, and with minimal pain.  
  
The small crowd cheered. "Show's over," Alec announced, with a quiet anger that caused the  
audience to quickly scatter. Alec looked down. There sat his bike, not a scratch on it. It was  
barely even dirty.  
  
"Well that's pretty lucky," Logan said. "Nothing broken, not even the bike." He smiled.  
  
Alec picked up the bike as if it were contaminated. He pushed the handles, with the tips of his  
fingers, into an alley.  
  
Logan and Asha followed him worriedly, he hadn't spoken a word.  
  
Alec pushed it far in, past a dumpster. Logan and Asha followed at a safe distance, on the other  
side of the dumpster. Alec turned halfway around, and lifted his bike. With a feral roar, he threw  
the cursed contraption right into the dumpster.  
  
CRASH!  
  
Logan yelped and jumped away from the dumpster's path, as it began to roll back out of the alley,  
from the force of the throw. At the last possible second, he noticed that Asha was still in the way,  
and yanked her back.  
  
Logan fell against the wall behind him, Asha collapsing into his arms.  
  
"YOU are lucky, Logan," Alec stated calmly. "If that had been me, I would've fallen flat on my  
back in that puddle, while hitting my head off that rock, with the dumpster rolling over my leg,  
and the bike falling out, right onto my bullet wound."  
  
"Bullet wound?" Asha questioned; she had been unconscious when he had been shot.  
  
Alec replied simply, "The first of my many pains."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Aww! Poor Alec! (Grins evilly) And I'm not even half done!  
It's sad how much I enjoy torturing Alec. 


	11. Break Stuff Part 2

Disclaimer: Aaaarrrrgggghhhh . . . I don't own Dark Angel, and the only profit I gain from this  
writing is pride.  
  
Chapter: Break Stuff Part 2  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alec stormed past Logan and Asha, taking a package from his wet, dirt encrusted bag, and  
checking the address.  
  
Logan and Asha turned to watch him go.  
  
Alec looked away from the package just in time to see the brick that lay in his path. He jumped  
over it, stumbled, and was too concentrated on his footing, of all things, to notice the next brick.  
  
Alec swore as he smacked into the ground, landing on the package, and crushing it. He pushed  
himself to his feet, picked up the remains of the package, and stormed off, muttering curses.  
  
"Not the most graceful of exits," Asha commented, tilting her head to the side to watch Alec  
leave.  
  
"I have the feeling this is not one of his more graceful days," Logan said, in the exact same  
position, arms folded in front of himself, his weight on his left leg, right knee slightly bent, head  
tilted to the right.  
  
And there the two of them stood, mimicking each other exactly, staring off into space and  
contemplating what they had just witnessed, long after Alec was gone.  
  
***  
  
Alec was too busy concentrating on keeping his cool to notice a thing that was going on around  
him.  
  
He didn't feel the slight breeze. He didn't notice the people on the sides of the roads as he  
brushed shoulders with them. He didn't notice the constant beeping of horns and roaring of  
engines. He didn't notice the more dull roar of the voices around him.  
  
He did, however, notice the pain. His gut ached. His head ached. His leg ached. He was  
limping. He was also freezing. Wet, dirty.  
  
Alec was able to notice only the things that caused him discomfort. He noticed nothing good, and  
he noticed nothing neutral.  
  
This fact did nothing whatsoever to help his mood.  
  
Frankly, he was having a terrible day.  
  
Every five minutes he either fell flat on his butt or . . . something else unpleasant.  
  
That was the most annoying thing to him at the moment. He currently had the grace and balance  
of a clown on one stilt. Or of a giraffe with two broken legs. It was anyone's guess which two.  
  
"Christ," Alec said, pausing in the middle of the street. "This must be hell."  
  
*BEEP BEEP*  
  
Alec jumped back to reality and darted to the sidewalk. The last thing he needed right now was  
to get hit by another car.  
  
Alec approached the building in front of him. Finally, after about an hour and a half of trudging  
across Seattle, he had reached the crushed package's destination. Alec stepped up to the door  
and knocked loudly.  
  
It was really too bad that he was too out of it to notice where he was.  
  
Just too bad.  
  
"Yeah?" said a man, opening the door. He looked at Alec. "What the hell are you doing here?"  
  
Alec's eyes snapped wide open, he still did not look at the man's face. His voice was distinctly  
British.  
  
Alec sighed, his shoulders slumping miserably. Of course. Great. Perfect. He should've known.   
"Look, I'm just here to deliver a package," he said, holding out said sorry excuse for a package.  
  
"What the hell is this?" British Eddie, leader of the steelheads, asked angrily. "Damn thing's  
destroyed!"  
  
Alec looked down. Crushed. Damn. Just his luck. Alec chuckled. What luck?  
  
"Oh, so you think this is funny, do you pretty boy?" British Eddie snarled. He grabbed Alec by  
the front of the shirt and dragged him into the building, taking the package from him at the same  
time. He pulled Alec in, spinning him around so they were facing each other, shoved him back  
and let go. Alec, with his giraffe-like grace, tripped and fell over backward, landing on his ass on  
the floor.  
  
Alec flat out laughed.  
  
British Eddie kicked him in the face, nearly breaking his nose. Alec grabbed his face in pain and  
rolled onto his back, shaking with laughter.  
  
"What is you goddamn problem?" British Eddie roared. Alec simply lay there laughing. "Boys,"  
Eddie called out to his fellow steelheads. "If you're looking to try out your new additions, I've  
got the perfect target for you!"  
  
A tall, muscular man, with half of his head covered in long black hair, and the other half in  
mechanical implants, stepped out from another room. "Well, what do we have here?" he said,  
grinning mischievously. He flipped out what looked like a targeting device from his cheek to his  
eye. He held up his arm. Or rather, what used to be his arm, and now was one massive machine  
gun.  
  
A little black man, with similar looks, followed him, with the same extension.  
  
Alec decided that that was as good of a time as any to shut the hell up. His eyes grew wide. He  
began to crawl, backwards from Eddie and his pals. Eddie grinned. Alec leapt suddenly to his  
feet, and blurred to the other end of the building, loud gunfire chasing after him.  
  
Alec ran into the nearest room and slammed the door behind him. He took cover from the gunfire  
that penetrated the closed door. He scanned the room quickly. "Dammit!" There were no  
windows for him to escape from.  
  
He leapt from his hiding place behind a desk and picked up the metal folding chair which sat next  
to him. Not knowing where the hell he was going to end up, he smashed the chair into the wall  
behind him repeatedly, trying to break through. He then punched and kicked it with all his  
strength. Moments before the steelheads opened the door, he pulled himself through a small hole  
he had created, tearing and cutting and splintering his skin on the way, not to mention his clothes.  
  
Alec took in his new surroundings. Bed, guns, Lux, window. He chose option number four,  
window. Before Lux even had time to react and jump up to run after him, Alec dove out the  
window.  
  
CRASH!  
  
The sound of the window breaking was followed by a more muffled crunch of glass breaking and  
a disgusting squishing noise, as Alec landed directly in a dumpster. Garbage. Yay!  
  
As he carefully pulled himself out of the gunk, Alec looked up at the window he had exited from.   
And there, of course, stood Lux, pointing a gun at him through the broken glass. "Don't move,"  
she hissed.  
  
Alec sighed. "Why not?"  
  
Lux grinned at him seductively. "'Cause if you do, I'll shoot you."  
  
"Come on, what do ya gotta do that for?" Alec asked. "I've already been shot once, I don't need  
to try it again."  
  
Lux glared at him. "I think you do."  
  
Alec leapt from the dumpster and ran away from the building. He heard more gunfire, and as he  
turned a corner, he felt a sudden burning in his side. After running for another ten minutes, he  
looked down, and saw that one of Lux's bullets had grazed him just below his ribs. "Great," he  
muttered. "Just great. Should've seen *that* one coming."  
  
He sighed. He was covered in scratches and cuts and fresh blood. He was dirty. He stank. His  
clothes were torn. Alec saw a homeless man sleeping against the side of a building. He studied  
the man, then he looked down at himself. He looked much worse than the man.  
  
Alec punched the brick wall the man was sleeping against, causing him to wake with a start.   
Alec's fist was already raw and bloody from beating his way through a wall.  
  
The homeless man gave him a look of pity.  
  
He held up a piece of bread to Alec, who looked as if he needed it a hell of a lot more.  
  
Alec growled and stormed away, ignoring the offering.  
  
***  
  
Reaching his hands up to his ears, Alec checked to make sure there wasn't steam coming out of  
them. He looked at the address on his last package once again, to make sure he wasn't just seeing  
things. Of all the places it could go to, the package just *had* to go there.  
  
Alec rubbed his eyes, careful not to spread blood from his hands into them. He sighed. What  
wouldn't kill him, would just make him stronger, right? Of course, where he was going right  
now, there was a good chance he *would* be killed.  
  
At least he wouldn't have to put up with falling over anymore.  
  
Alec took a deep breath, and headed off to the Berrisford mansion.  
  
***  
  
Please ring buzzer for entry, the sign said. Well what if he didn't want to enter? What then?   
Well, he could always toss the package over the fence, but then Normal would be pissed over his  
lack of signature, and it wouldn't be a very good thing if Alec got in a fight with Normal and got  
even more frustrated and killed the guy.  
  
Or maybe. . . .  
  
No, it wouldn't be a good thing.  
  
Alec pushed the buzzer. "Jam pony messenger," he said into the intercom. There was a buzzing  
noise, and he pulled open the gate and walked to the front door. -Here goes a hell of a lot.- Alec  
thought.  
  
Robert Berrisford himself answered the door. Alec held out the package, which was a little  
bloody, but otherwise unharmed. He pulled out his clipboard and a pen. "I need you to sign  
here," Alec said quietly.  
  
"I told you never to come back here," Robert said, making no move to do so.  
  
"Well if you'd just sign here, then I can leave. And you told me never to go back to the  
graveyard."  
  
"Who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like that?" Robert snarled. "It doesn't matter  
where you were at that moment, the point was for you to stay away!"  
  
"I'm delivering a goddamn package!" Alec snapped. "Just SIGN so I can LEAVE! I didn't want  
to come here in the first place! As you may be able to see, unless you are BLIND, I'm not having  
a very good day. This was the LAST place I wanted to be!"  
  
Robert snatched the clipboard and scribbled down a signature. "Get off my property," he  
ordered. "Before I have you removed." Two men in black suits stepped up behind him. The men  
Alec had taken out to get to Rachel the last time he had been there.  
  
Alec snatched the clipboard back and said, "Fine." He turned to leave. "Besides, they both know  
they couldn't take me anyway," he called over his shoulder.  
  
"And you can't take a shower, apparently," Robert muttered.  
  
Alec stopped. He tensed his shoulders trying to keep his anger under control.  
  
"Go!" Robert yelled.  
  
Alec walked stiffly out. Past the driveway, the very place where he dealt Rachel her death blow,  
and through the gate.  
  
He slammed the gate behind him, breaking it off its hinges with the force.  
  
Crash.  
  
***  
  
Alec decided to head home, he'd bring the signature in the next morning. Right now, he needed  
sleep. And a good shower. And bandages. And disinfectant. And some drugs to help him sleep.   
And severe amounts of alcohol. Number one on his list: Enough alcohol to knock him  
unconscious. AKA sleep.  
  
Alec entered the nearest liquor store on his way home. He walk right up to the counter and asked  
for the strongest drink in stock. "Not second strongest, not the shit you hand out to wusses who  
can't hold their liquor. The strongest."  
  
The man behind the counter took one look at him and pulled out a bottle of just that.  
  
Alec took some money from his pocket. He was surprised he actually had any there. He counted  
what he had. "Make that three bottles," he said.  
  
The man took out two more bottles and greedily accepted the cash. "Don't drink and drive with  
that stuff," he warned. "That'll kill ya in an instant."  
  
"Thanks for the warning," Alec said. He tucked two bottles under his left arm, and pulled out the  
cork of the other with his teeth. He spit it behind the counter and took a long, long swig.   
"Thanks for the drink too. I desperately need it."  
  
"I can see that," the man commented.  
  
Alec walked out of the store.  
  
***  
  
Alec didn't even have the first bottle half gone, and he wasn't even half way home, when it began  
to pouring down rain.  
  
He stopped. "My god," he said. "Someone out there really does HATE ME!"  
  
He stood there, staring up into the sky, doing nothing other than that, for a good ten minutes.   
Then he took another long swig and began to walk again.  
  
All of a sudden, he slipped on something on the ground and his feet flew out from under him. He  
managed to drop and break all three bottles of alcohol and land on the broken glass.  
  
Water and alcohol soaked through his tattered clothing, and his cuts burned like the devil in hell.   
"I know," Alec began, looking up at the sky once again, still on his back on the ground. "I know  
I've done a lot of horrible things in my life, but I've been through so much, they kinda balance  
out. So, in the name of all the morphine on the damn planet, could someone please tell me  
WHAT THE HELL I DID TO DESERVE THIS?!?!?"  
  
Receiving no answer, Alec just lay there, soaking in blood and water, and freezing his very sore  
butt off.  
  
***  
  
Asha wrung her hands nervously, picked up her coat, and left to head to her cousin Mac's house.   
After dragging her away from a transgenic hunter, when she had been hanging with the  
transgenics, he had demanded an explanation.  
  
Asha hadn't been in the mood to explain her entire friendship with Max and Alec and where they  
came from, and she needed some time to think about exactly what she would say, so she told him  
she'd talk to him and his friend Jake over dinner later.  
  
She walked down the street to Mac's apartment hurriedly. It was cold out, and it was raining  
hard. She so did not want to show up soaking wet and catch a cold, but it wasn't like she could  
stay dry, walking in the rain.  
  
Asha had two coats on, one pulled up over her head to protect her from the rain. She was having  
trouble seeing, as she either had to have the coat almost in her eyes, or have the rain in them.  
  
She scuttled quickly around a corner, and stopped in her tracks.  
  
For the second time that day, she had come upon Alec, lying on the ground, looking quite  
miserable. "This really isn't your day, is it?" she asked loudly.  
  
Alec jumped at the sudden sound. Turning his head and seeing who it was, he relaxed again and  
looked back up at the sky. "You really have no idea," he told her.  
  
Asha walked over until she was standing directly above him. "Christ, you're bleeding!" she  
exclaimed, getting a good look at him, and the glass scattered around his motionless form. "What  
the hell happened?"  
  
"Everything," Alec sighed.  
  
"Come on, you're soaking wet, you're gonna die of a cold. Let me help you up," Asha said.  
  
Alec shook his head. "There's no point, really. I've spent more time on the ground today than I  
have on my feet. Let's count how many times I fell today alone. I fell out of bed," he said,  
checking off fingers, "I tripped on the sheets and fell, I slipped in the shower, Normal threw  
packages at me-"  
  
"Okay, I get the picture," Asha interrupted. "But this way, at least you've got the chance to catch  
yourself. Down there, you can't do anything if the entire world decides to step on you."  
  
"That's what the world has been doing the entire day," Alec said. He shivered.  
  
"I was wrong," Asha said. Alec gave her a confused look. "You're not gonna die of a cold,  
you're gonna die of hypothermia." She held out her hand to him. "Get up."  
  
Alec took her hand. "Fine," he said. With her help, he stood. "Thanks."  
  
Asha looked at her watch. "Shit, I gotta go, I'm incredibly late already!" She turned away.  
  
"Late for what?" Alec asked.  
  
"Dinner!" she called back over her shoulder.  
  
"See ya," Alec mumbled, and turned in the opposite direction to continue home.  
  
Asha heard a bump and a sigh. She turned around quickly, to find Alec on the ground, on his  
back. He reached awkwardly down to his shoe, and peeled off the wet piece of garbage he had  
slipped on. For the second time.  
  
Asha quickly ran back to him.  
  
"Come on, I gotta go," she said, reaching her hand out again.  
  
"Nope," Alec declined. "It's safer down here."  
  
Asha turned and ran.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Will clue up the break stuff section next chapter, I think. And Asha's dinner with Mac will either  
be next chapter or the one after. 


	12. Guy In Pain Here!

Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel, which belongs to its creators and such. I gain no real profit  
from this use of characters and situations. My design is my own, but I built the house with  
borrowed wood. I don't own the song "Break Stuff" either, that belongs to Limp Bizkit. And  
"Real World" belongs to Matchbox 20.  
  
BTW, just thought I'd let you know that Alec wasn't wearing his leather jacket. Just a thin-ish  
autumn thing.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
~~~It's just one of those days when you don't wanna wake up  
~~~Everything is f***ed, everybody sucks  
~~~You don't really know why, but you wanna justify  
~~~Ripping someone's head off  
~~~No human contact, and if you interact  
~~~Your life is on contract  
~~~Your best bet is to stay away, mother f***er  
~~~It's just one of those days  
  
-Limp Bizkit: Break Stuff  
  
  
~~~Straight up, what did you hope to learn about here?  
~~~If I were someone else, would this all fall apart?  
~~~Strange, where were you when we started this gig?  
~~~I wish the real world would just stop hassling me.  
  
-Matchbox 20: Real World  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
-Well, this is sure interesting,- Alec mused. He was lying flat on his back, freezing and numb as  
the cold rain poured down on him. He stared blankly into the sky. He was using what rational  
brain power he had left to ponder what the hell he had done that was so horrible, that he had been  
forced to spend this day in hell.  
  
Alec wondered whether or not this was a round trip. He sure hoped it was, and he would come  
back in one sane piece. So far, the odds were against him. 9000 bezillion to one.  
  
Alec sighed and raised a hand to brush through his bloodied and rain soaked hair. A sharp pain  
alerted him to a rather large piece of broken glass digging into his shoulder. He reached over with  
his other arm and yanked it out, tossing it away.  
  
He wiped the new found blood off of his fingers and onto his jacket, very surprised that he hadn't  
cut his fingers. It was only when a tear in his jacket caught on his finger, that he realized that he  
had, his fingers had just gone numb from the cold, that was all.  
  
Alec sighed. He supposed he might as well get up, before he caught hypothermia and died right  
there. He sat up slowly and painfully, and carefully rose from among the broken glass.  
  
He looked down and kicked a piece with the toe of his shoe. He slowly began to walk towards  
home, towards his bed.  
  
***  
  
Tired from a long day of bowing to the Porcelain Queen, Original Cindy finally managed to nod  
off, on the couch, with Max stroking her hair lightly.  
  
Tired both physically and mentally from her day's events so far, of taking care of Original Cindy,  
putting up with the girl's bitching and moaning, and trying not to think of what had happened  
between her and Alec the past two nights, Max was more than happy for the break.  
  
It was raining cats and dogs outside, and Max stared longingly out the window. Despite the feline  
DNA, Max had always enjoyed the rain. Not necessarily going out into it and freezing her butt  
off, but watching it pour from grey skies, cleansing and almost . . . purifying the land below the  
clouds. It was so peaceful, she almost wished she could *be* rain. Rain probably didn't have half  
as much stress and trouble.  
  
Max really needed something to calm her frayed nerves, so she decided to go take a nice,  
luxurious, short walk. She couldn't necessarily leave Original Cindy for long, she had been  
running a fever all day, and there was no telling when she'd be waking up.  
  
But Max went anyway. She felt she deserved that much.  
  
She set out, with no hood or umbrella, simply letting the water wash over her. Cold aside, it felt  
good. Calming.  
  
Max had no worries about how long it would take her to get back, she could just walk as far as  
she wanted, within reason, and she could run home and get there within minutes. So she just  
walked, not knowing, or even caring to look where she was.  
  
She didn't even look where she was going.  
  
***  
  
Alec was too preoccupied with how warm and soft his bed would feel once he got to it, to pay  
attention to where he was going. Once again, it was gonna cost him.  
  
*SMACK!*  
  
*THUD!*  
  
"DAMMIT!" Alec screamed from the ground. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM  
ME?!?!?"  
  
Max was about to reply with, "Nothing, and hello to you too," when she looked at Alec from her  
vantage point on the ground opposite to him. He looked worse than shit. "Alec! What happened  
to you? Are you alright?"  
  
"Peachy, Max, just peachy," Alec muttered.  
  
"What happened?" Max asked, crawling to his side. "Was it White?"  
  
"No, I haven't had the pleasure of running into him today," Alec replied, truly thankful. "And I  
don't think you even wanna know what happened."  
  
"Of course I do!" Max said, assessing the damage he had taken so far. "Was it a mob or  
something?"  
  
Alec chuckled bitterly. "I wish." He held up his bloody hand and began to list off his injuries,  
pulling back fingers. "I went to a salsa club and got in a fight, what two days ago? Then I got  
shot, spent the night in a hospital, hardly getting any sleep, then I got kicked in the stomach by a  
transgenic, and split my head open on the pavement, didn't get to bed until six in the morning,  
woke up at seven, fell out of bed, tripped up, slipped in the water-less shower, got knocked over  
by a bunch of packages, flipped my bike and got ran over, got pried out from under a car, met up  
with British Eddie and got shot at again, grazed, delivered a package to Robert Berrisford, and  
fell over onto three bottles of unfinished alcohol, after getting caught in the rain, got up and fell  
over again, stayed there in the broken glass until I couldn't feel my fingers, still can't, smacked  
into you and fell over again. That enough information for you?"  
  
Max winced. "Uh, yeah."  
  
"And I haven't had a bite to eat all goddamn day."  
  
Max stood and reached out a hand to help him up. "Come on, lets head back to my place, get  
you cleaned up."  
  
Alec looked up at her, looking defeated. "You know what Max? I think it'll be much better if I  
just stay here and watch the rest of this day go by from a safe distance."  
  
"A good soldier never admits defeat," Max encouraged.  
  
Alec growled. "Don't even start, Max. And besides, a good soldier knows when to quit. Now  
just leave me al-"  
  
Max cut him off abruptly by grabbing his hands off the ground and yanking him to his feet. Alec  
grunted, a sound that came out oddly like a whimper. "Come on," Max whispered softly and  
comfortingly.  
  
As Max half-dragged Alec into her apartment, she began to feel sort of like a charity worker of  
some kind, accepting the injured and sick into her home and offering to take care of them. "Sit,"  
she ordered Alec, directing him to a chair.  
  
He plopped down hard and then jumped back up with a yelp. Apparently, his back hadn't been  
willing to part with all the broken glass on the ground, he realized as he arched his back in pain.  
  
Max turned quickly towards him, momentarily halting on her way to the bathroom to get the first  
aid kit. She looked at Alec quizzically.  
  
"Broken glass," Alec told her.  
  
She nodded, and resumed her trip to the bathroom, moving more quickly this time. Frankly, it  
hurt her to see Alec like this, almost as much as it might have hurt him.  
  
She snatched up the first aid kit hastily, rushing back out to Alec. She looked him over quickly.   
"We're gonna need to get those clothes off of you," she told him.  
  
She expected him to joke about her wanting to see him naked or something, but he just stared at  
her, looking sick to his stomach. He braced himself and began to peel off his bloody coat. Max  
set the first aid kit down on the coffee table, and helped him to remove it with minimal damage.  
  
As the coat moved from his back, several pieces of glass fell to the floor. Max winced, as did  
Alec, as the coat had pulled them from his flesh. "Christ, Alec, how hard did you fall to have  
them cut right through your coat?!?"  
  
Alec just looked at her.  
  
Max sighed. She carefully took him by the arm and turned him so that his back was to her. She  
grimaced. His tight black sweater was torn and bloodied, and there were still pieces of glass  
sticking into it. "We'd better get these out before we take this off."  
  
She opened the first aid kit and took out a pair of tweezers. "You ready?" she asked, standing  
behind him, poised to begin plucking the glass from his flesh. Alec simply nodded and braced  
himself. Max set to work, eyes welling up with tears with each piece she pulled; each time Alec  
hissed in pain. Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity, Max pulled out the last piece. The  
tweezers, her hands, and the table where she had dropped the glass, were coated lightly in blood.  
  
"Okay," Max said fighting back tears. "They're out, lets get this shirt off you." Max tentatively  
began to raise his shirt. Her fingers brushed against his skin gently. "Shit Alec, you're freezing!"  
she exclaimed as she peeled the shirt off of his raised arms.  
  
As the cool air hit his skin, Alec shivered, as if to verify her statement.  
  
His skin. Max shuddered seeing his skin. It was bloody, cut, torn, and bruised. And so cold. If  
Alec had been sleeping, she would've thought him dead. Max could barely stand to look at it.  
  
As Max turned to grab some supplies, Alec swayed on his feet, the cold and the blood loss  
beginning to get to him. Max's arms shot toward him and held him steady. "Can you sit now?"  
she asked worriedly. At her question, Alec slowly lowered himself back to the chair, trembling  
sightly. His silence was really beginning to bother Max. Alec was never quiet. "I'll get you some  
water," Max whispered softly.  
  
She rushed to the kitchen and grabbed a glass, pouring water quickly into it. Alec watched her  
quietly. She returned with the glass of water and handed it to him, watching as he slowly raised it  
to his lips, then gulped it down eagerly. It was then that Max noticed the wound where the bullet  
had grazed him. Dried blood was caked around it. She took the glass from him and set it on the  
table.  
  
She picked up a cloth and some disinfectant. She wet the cloth. "This is gonna hurt," she  
whispered. Alec nodded and closed his eyes. She touched the cloth gently to the wound. Alec  
grinded his teeth together from the pain. He exhaled with a long, loud hiss. Max worked as  
quickly as she could and bandaged up the wound.  
  
There were many long scratches trailing down his muscular chest, just above the dirty bandage  
that covered his bullet wound. Max had to pluck out a few splinters before she carefully removed  
the bandage to change it. The skin around the wound was bruised in an unusual manner. "Did  
something else happen . . ." she trailed off, searching for words.  
  
Alec nodded. "I was in Terminal City last night, and Mole was not happy to see me. His boot  
was."  
  
"That Mole is a rather bitter individual," Max commented. Alec nodded in agreement. Max  
quickly replaced the bandage with a new one. She took a deep breath. "We'd better get a second  
look at that back of yours."  
  
Alec turned sideways in the chair. Max took a deep breath and stepped behind him. "What were  
you doing in TC after being shot?" she asked to distract herself as she reassessed the damage.  
  
"I ended up there after I left . . . I, uh, visiting Joshua," Alec stammered, mentally slapping himself  
for referring to the uncomfortable night at Crash.  
  
"Oh," Max said, suddenly feeling guilty about what she had done at the hospital. "These are  
gonna need stitches," she said, changing the subject and coming back to the task at hand.  
  
"Figures," Alec replied.  
  
Max picked a needle and surgical thread out of the kit. She moved to sew him up, but paused.   
"Oh yeah, gotta disinfect first."  
  
"To hell with it," Alec told her as she put down the needle and thread. "I was lying in alcohol,  
that should be good enough."  
  
Max ignored him and picked up the disinfectant. "It's sickening enough to look at," she told him.   
"We don't want it to get infected."  
  
"Fine."  
  
The word wasn't even out of his mouth before the cloth touched his shredded back. "Fuck!" Alec  
hissed, grabbing the chair and squeezing hard.  
  
Original Cindy stirred on the couch. "Boo, what the hell?" she moaned. She opened her eyes  
slowly to see Alec, looking like hell, squeezing the chair in pain, his eyes clamped tightly closed.   
"Alec?" she said, sitting up groggily, not seeing Max behind him yet.  
  
Max finished disinfecting and stuck her head out from behind Alec, looking at Original Cindy.   
"Hey, girl," she said amiably.  
  
Alec slowly relaxed and opened his eyes. "That hurt," he said.  
  
"What's going on?" Original Cindy asked.  
  
"Our boy has had a horrible and painful day," Max replied.  
  
"That's an understatement," Alec said.  
  
"Oh," said Original Cindy. "I think I'm gonna go throw up now." With that, she dragged herself  
off of the couch and staggered to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.  
  
Alec winced as his headache returned, full force. He groaned.  
  
"Almost done," Max whispered reassuringly. She stitched him up as quickly as possible,  
considering the sheer number of cuts that needed stitching.  
  
"Is that all of it?" Max asked, circling back in front of Alec. He shook his head slowly. He lifted  
his left pant leg. Max grimaced. About a tire's width of his lower leg was bruised. An ugly  
yellow bruise that looked like it *really* must have hurt. "What happened?!?" Max asked.  
  
"Cars," Alec told her.  
  
"Christ, is it broken?" Max asked, eyes wide, kneeling in front of him to look at it.  
  
"I don't think so," Alec replied. "Hurts like hell though."  
  
"Well, I'm not surprised," Max said, satisfied that it wasn't broken and standing back up.  
  
The bathroom door slammed open and Original Cindy emerged.  
  
Alec grimaced at the sudden, loud noise, cutting through his skull.  
  
"Okay, you two. I spilled, now you spill," Original Cindy said.  
  
It sounded to Alec like she was screaming in his ear. "What?!?!?" Max asked, screwing up her  
face at the rather disgusting image OC's words presented to her.  
  
"Tell me what happened," Original Cindy elaborated, plopping down on the couch.  
  
"I think it's gonna be a *really* long story," Max told her.  
  
"Could you keep it down?" Alec asked, raising his hands to his head.  
  
The tone of his voice was enough to frighten Max into silence. He sounded so . . . helpless. Like  
he was in unimaginable pain. Max studied him. "Alec, your hands!" she said, careful to keep her  
voice down. His knuckles were battered and bruised and bleeding. Several of his finger tips were  
oozing blood. Max took his hands in hers and inspected them carefully. "How could you not  
mention these? Look at them!"  
  
"Well they're so damn cold I can barely feel them," Alec told her, studying his hands himself. "I  
guess you tend to forget about the self inflicted wounds."  
  
"Self inflicted?!? What's the matter with you? You just go around punching shit until you're  
bleeding all over the place? And just how long were you lying in the cold and rain? What, do you  
have a death wish? Or do you just like pain? How the hell do you expect me to feel bad for you  
when you do this to yourself?" Max screamed at him.  
  
Alec winced. "Oh," he said quietly. "I get it now."  
  
"Get what Alec?" Max asked, angry and frustrated.  
  
"That's what this whole damn day was about, right?" Alec screamed, but not at Max. He was  
staring out the window, radiating pain. "My goddamn punishment for being such a screw up?   
For wanting what I can't have? For making people feel sorry for me, when they've got enough  
problems of their own? I may have been created to be perfect, but I'm not, you know! I'm only  
human, no matter how I was born or enhanced! People make mistakes!"  
  
"Alec . . ." Max said softly, trying to get his attention.  
  
"You know what?" Alec screamed at no one, and yet everyone. "They weren't even my  
mistakes! It was always 493, or his brothers and sisters, Manticore, White . . . hell the rain is  
more to blame than me!"  
  
"Alec!" Max yelled.  
  
Alec's head snapped toward her, tears streaming down his face, breathing deeply. Max grabbed  
him, ignoring his wounds, and pulled him into her arms. Original Cindy got up from the couch  
and came towards them, placing her hand on Alec's shoulder as he sobbed in Max's arms. Alec  
sank to the floor, Max sinking down with him. "I'm sorry," Max whispered in his ear. "I'm so  
sorry, Alec. It's not your fault. It never was."  
  
Alec pulled back slightly to look at her, quieting down. "I . . . you . . ." Max began, trying to find  
words to tell him the truth.  
  
Original Cindy sat down beside them. "My Boo don't like to see people hurting. She don't like  
to hurt. And things always seem like they'll hurt less if it's someone else's fault. And it's easier  
to hide from the pain when you're yelling than when you're quiet."  
  
Max continued from there, thankful for Original Cindy's wonderful help and friendship. "It's  
easier for me to be mad at you than it is to feel sorry for myself. I don't know, I guess I always  
thought you could take it, but it wasn't fair to you. I don't mean to make you feel bad just to get  
myself to feel better. It's wrong, and it's cruel." She reached up her hand to stroke the side of  
Alec's tear streaked face. "Alec, most of the stuff I blame you for, it's really my fault, and I'm so  
sorry. Before I met you, I spent all of my time moping and feeling sorry for myself. Then you  
came along, and I . . . I *used* you . . . as a scapegoat, someone to blame, and someone to take  
my pain out on. Someone to hate, no matter how I really felt. And the truth is, it really tears me  
up to see anything bad happen to you. You feel pain, I feel pain. And it is easier to yell than to  
feel. Anger is easier to handle than pain, frustration, even love."  
  
"You don't even know what pain is," Alec told her. He took her hand from his cheek, but rather  
than throw it down like Max was expecting, he kissed it gently. "And I hope you never do. You  
know why I put up with it most of the time, Max?"  
  
Max shook her head.  
  
"I put up with it, because I don't *want* you to feel the pain. But there's only so much I can  
take, Max."  
  
Max looked into Alec's eyes, and she saw the something in them. Something unfamiliar, yet  
comforting. The same thing she had seen in the hospital just after Alec had woken up. She  
recognized it now. Love. She saw love in his eyes. "Alec, I . . . I'm sorry. I'm sorry I blamed  
you for the virus. I'm sorry I kicked you. I'm sorry I yelled at you. I'm sorry I hurt you. I'm  
sorry I got you shot. I'm sorry I used you to push Logan away. I'm sorry I pushed you away.   
I'm sorry I ignored you, but most of all, Alec, I'm sorry I never told you how I really felt."  
  
Alec's heart filled with hope. "What do you mean-"  
  
"I love you Alec."  
  
Alec froze. -Did she just . . .-  
  
"Alec?" Max asked. He appeared to be in shock. "Are you alright?"  
  
Alec finally unfroze and smiled at her. "Truthfully? I never was. But I am now."  
  
Max stared at him, unsure of his meaning, but hoping. . . .  
  
"I love you too, Max. You don't know how much-"  
  
Max cut him off by seizing his lips with her own. Alec wrapped his arms around her and kissed  
her back, showing her just how much he had longed for this moment.  
  
Original Cindy watched them, barely able to contain her joy at her two best friends' (she used her  
suddenly selective memory to conveniently forget about Sketchy) professed love for one another.   
"Aww," she sighed. "I love you guys!"  
  
Max and Alec pulled apart and stared at her with looks of confusion. Then all three of them burst  
our laughing.  
  
After a few minutes, Alec leaned over with his hands over his stomach. "Owww," he moaned.  
  
Original Cindy brought her hands to her stomach as well. "I think I'm gonna go throw up again."  
  
As Original Cindy got up and ran to the bathroom, Max unsuccessfully tried to suppress the urge  
to start laughing all over again.  
  
"Hey," Alec said in mock sadness. "Guy in pain over here."  
  
Max straightened up and managed to stop laughing. "Come on, let's get those hands cleaned up."   
She smiled softly at Alec, and got to work.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Next chapter will probably be Asha's dinner with Mac.  
  
So, what did y'all think? I wasn't being too abrupt again, was I? I have a tendency to do that. In  
agreement with Khassa, take the latest chapter of "Ain't It Funny" for example, if you're reading  
it. I really don't like that I do it, and I try not to, but do you think I did it here? I mean, I was  
building up on the M/A through the whole story. . . . And Alec was bound to blow up sometime.   
I think I'm adding that to my definition of a "Break Stuff" theme. Must involve a 'blow up' on  
the part of the 'break stuff' ing person.  
  
Please review, and let me know your opinions. 


	13. New and Not

Disclaimer: *sigh* This get tiring. I claim no ownership, mean no harm, come in peace, blah.   
Blah. Oh! And blah.  
  
Sorry for the wait, I guess I was taking a break, and plus I was working on other stories.  
Hope you're all still reading. This is my most popular story, and I would hate to see all the  
review potential go to waste.  
  
I take it back. The reason for the wait was that I'm lazy and haven't forced myself to write. I'm  
getting kinda tired of this story, but that's no excuse to not finish it. So, I turn to myself and say,  
"Get your butt in gear, you lazy %*&**%$$#&((%#&%$$#$%&*$#!@#^&%!@#$%@@^&!"  
  
Let's hope it works. No guarantees.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Well?"  
  
"Well what?"  
  
"Are you going to start explaining, or are you just gonna play with your food all evening?" Mac  
asked Asha, taking another bite of his meatloaf. His friend Jake watched her expectantly.  
  
Asha sighed. "What do you want to know?"  
  
"Everything," Jake informed her.  
  
"Well, gee, could ya narrow that down just a little more for me?"  
  
"Let's see . . . how 'bout why the *hell* you're being held hostage by some government freakazoid  
who's out to kill transgenics?"  
  
"Because he's a government FREAKAZOID," Asha stated calmly.  
  
Jake snickered as Mac glared at him. "You're not helping, you know," Mac seethed.  
  
Jake shrugged nonchalantly, and forked a bite of meatloaf into his mouth.  
  
Mac turned back to Asha as he spoke. "How do you know the trannies?"  
  
"They're friends of mine."  
  
"Friends," Mac grunted sarcastically. "Sure."  
  
Asha glared at Mac. "And what's wrong with that?"  
  
"You want me to write out a list?"  
  
"Racist." Asha slipped under her breath.  
  
"*Excuse* me?!?" Mac exclaimed.   
  
Jake choked on his meatloaf and nearly spit it back out.  
  
Asha put down her fork. "I *said* you're a racist! What do you think that because they're so  
different, they're not even human? Because they were born in a lab, they don't deserve the right to  
live? Because their childhood was stolen from them and they were taught to kill and faced torture  
every goddamned day of their lives, they're monsters? You know nothing about them."  
  
Mac stared at her, speechless, whilst Jake somehow worked up the courage to speak to the  
fuming woman. "You said it yourself: their childhood was stolen from them, and they spent their  
entire lives learning how to kill. They probably don't even know how to be 'human'."  
  
"And that means that they're not?"  
  
She received no answer.  
  
"Well you're wrong. The transgenics are more human than a lot of people out there. Max, that girl  
who was fighting, has spent her life trying to hide what she is, to be *normal*, because she's  
afraid to be herself. A human quality, if I'm not mistaken. She closes herself off, not because she's  
afraid for her life, but because she's afraid that if she opens up and tells someone about her, she'll  
be alone. Alec, the guy, is afraid to commit because he's had his heart broken. He's afraid that  
getting close to people will get them killed. You put the two of them in a room together and  
they'll eat each other alive because they can both be so damned annoying! They grate on each  
others nerves like sandpaper because he's a smart aleck, and she's a stubborn bitch, on one of her  
better days. But when they look into each other's eyes, you can see sparks fly. And they're both so  
blind that they don't even notice that they don't hate each other. Does that sound like a pair of  
monsters to you two?"  
  
"Geez, Asha, breathe for a minute," Mac mumbled.  
  
"I'll do that, while you attempt to open your goddamned eyes." Asha pushed her chair out and  
stormed from the room and out the front door.  
  
The two boys stared at her empty chair for a long moment afterwards. Jake slowly pushed his  
plate away; he suddenly found that he was no longer hungry.  
  
Mac rose from his chair and moved to the door. "Where are you going?" Jake asked.  
  
"Where do you think I'm going?" The door slammed closed again. Moments later, it slammed a   
third time.  
********  
Alec awoke with a headache. No surprise there. Smacking one's head repeatedly did tend to bring  
them on. Well, there was one plus to almost three bottles of alcohol going to waste. (A statement  
Alec had never thought he would hear himself think.) He didn't have a swimming head of a  
hangover to go with the headache. Because that would have been fun!  
  
Alec shifted slightly on the warm, soft mattress. He felt a light pressure on his chest, and looked  
down to see an arm sprawled across him. It wasn't his arm. . . . Small, delicate, with creamy  
brown skin. Alec turned his head to see a large puff of curly brown hair.   
  
"What the hell?" he muttered.   
  
The figure lying in bed next to him stirred. The puff rose and shifted, like a mountain rising from  
the earth in severe fast forward motion. Bleary eyes appeared from underneath the mess.  
  
Original Cindy squinted, trying to make out the form beneath her, eyes sleep filled.  
  
"Unhhh... Alec?" she rasped.   
  
Then she did a double-take and sprang from the bed as if it were crawling with cockroaches. In  
her upward flight, she delivered an accidental open fisted punch to Alec's gut, and somehow  
managed to get her legs tangled in his, toppling over backwards and rolling awkwardly off the bed  
to land on the floor with a thud.  
  
Alec grunted and sat up. A little too quickly for his head's liking, but he didn't fall back to the  
mattress. He looked over the side of the bed to see Original Cindy stumbled off the floor and  
stand to dash out of the room like a bat out of hell.   
  
"Maaaaax!!!!" she screeched, and Alec's hands flew to his ears. It was then he noticed the painful  
pull of stitches all over his back, and a dull throb just about all over his body from various  
wounds. He was probably healing pretty well already, but it still hurt plenty.  
  
He heard muffled conversation from the kitchen and made a small attempt to hear what was being  
said, but instead shrugged it off and slowly lay back down, snuggling into the blankets.  
********  
"Boo, why in hell did I just wake up with a MAN?!!" Original Cindy asked, as Max calmly poured  
her up a cup of coffee. "Why is ALEC in MY bed?!!"  
  
"OC, that's my bed," Max informed her.  
  
"Oh," Original Cindy said, as if that made everything alright. Then she exploded into frantic  
questions again. "Why in hell did I just wake up in YOUR bed with a MAN?!!"  
  
Max gestured for Cindy to take a seat as she gave her her coffee. "He was in such bad shape I let  
him take my bed. I was lying on the couch, when you got up in the middle of the night, went to  
the bathroom, and went back in the wrong room," she explained. "Now here's my question:  
exactly how did you not notice that there was already someone in the bed?"  
  
"Boo, you askin' the wrong girl. I can't even remember waking up in the night!"  
  
"Heh, yeah, you were pretty out of it," Max giggled. "I recall you mumbled something along the  
lines of your money was on the chickens. . . . I really have zero clue what you were talking about.  
. . ."  
  
"Oh yeah!" Cindy said, light bulbs going off in her head. "I remember! Lickety-chicken-boo was  
totally gonna lay a smackdown on Spongebob. Freaky little guy just had it comin'."  
  
Max's smiles and giggles gave way to confusion. "Uhmm . . . what?"  
  
"Yeah, 'cause Alec wouldn't wake up, and Spongebob just wouldn't stop giggling when Diddy  
Kong poked him, and Homer was gettin' frustrated . . ."  
  
"OC, maybe you should go back to bed . . . or take a nice, cold, awakening shower. . . . Wait. So  
you knew Alec was there?"  
  
"Well o' course, boy was blockin' the whole damn freeway and snorin' like a foghorn. . . . Yeah  
Boo. I'm goin' back ta bed." Original Cindy got up from the table and stumbled out of the kitchen.  
  
"Other room," Max called.  
  
Original Cindy wheeled away from Max's room to her own, and slammed her door with an air of  
finality.  
  
Max smiled and shook her head softly. She picked up Original Cindy's unfinished coffee and  
downed it quickly. She put the cup in the sink and went to her bedroom, where Alec slept. She  
crept silently to his side, kneeling on the floor and resting her elbows on the bed. Unable to stop  
herself, she lightly traced his features with her fingertips. He had been through hell and back the  
day before, and yet he still managed to look like a peaceful and relaxed angel when he slept.  
  
Alec stirred, turning his face into her fingertips. Max responded by leaning forward and kissing  
him on the forehead. His eyes fluttered open. "Max?" he murmured.  
  
"Hey pretty boy, how ya feelin'?" Max asked.  
  
"Not so pretty."  
  
"Oh, I can assure you, your looks are still intact," Max told him.  
  
"Good," he replied, and drifted off back to sleep. Max let him.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Shorter, sure, but oh well. They can't all be mini sub-novels..... That, my friends, is the little  
thing we call exaggeration. (Psha, sub-novels....) 


	14. Isn't Violence FUN?

Disclaimer: I don't presume to own Dark Angel, I could never have the genius to come up with it,  
or the stupidity to cancel it. I DO own my original characters.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
It was almost one o'clock in the afternoon when Alec finally dragged himself up out of Max's  
bed. On his way out of her room and into the kitchen, he noticed a neatly folded piece of paper  
on her dresser. His name was written on the outside. He picked it up and flipped it open.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Dear Alec,  
  
OC and I have gone to work. Make   
yourself more at home, hope to see   
you when we get back.  
  
Max  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alec shrugged, and tossed it back onto the dresser. He went out to the kitchen to get a cup of  
coffee, smiling as he noticed that there was still some left in the pot. He turned on the stove and  
reheated it.  
  
Once it was done, he found the sugar and a spoon. He was about to put some sugar into his  
coffee cup, but he thought better of it, and drank it black. Yes, he could indeed learn from past  
mistakes. For all he knew, that 'sugar' could be salt. Or it could've gone with the classic, flour.   
Hell, for all he knew, it was pepper in disguise. Garlic even. Better not take any chances.  
  
He took a small taste to test it first, to make sure he wouldn't end up in an arduous battle to keep  
it down. It was good. All was good.  
  
Alec smiled again and sat down at the table. He put down his coffee and sat in silence for a  
moment. Five seconds went by. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty. Not a sound. Yep, this was not  
yesterday, it was finally tomorrow. A day to heal, and rest in peace, without the six feet of dirt.  
  
He took a long gulp of his coffee.  
  
*KNOCK KNOCK*  
  
Alec was incredibly, almost frightfully, overjoyed to find that he didn't jump even a millimeter.   
Ladies and gentlemen, this fine specimen had overcome the greatest obstacle known to man.   
Sudden loud noises everywhere, look out.  
  
He put down his coffee, unable to remove the grin from his face. Carefully watching his footing,  
Alec padded to the doorway. He looked through the peephole. Oh look, British Eddie was NOT  
behind door number one.  
  
Alec opened the door, making sure the chain was on. He looked out. "Yeah?"  
  
"Oh, um, hey. Can we, uh, come in?"  
  
"Asha's cousin, right?"  
  
"No, that's him." The redheaded boy gestured to his friend. "I'm Jake, and this is Mac."  
  
"Well, I guess so then," Alec responded, shutting the door and removing the chain to let the two  
boys in.  
  
As the door swung open, they were able to take in Alec's full appearance. "Whoa," Jake  
muttered. "White did all that?" he gestured to Alec's bandages.  
  
Alec grinned, shutting the door behind them. "Nah, just this one. The rest are from my base-  
jumping accident."  
  
"Base-jumping?" Mac echoed, wide-eyed. "Really?"  
  
"No. Just a really, *really* horrible day yesterday."  
  
"Yeah, I'll say," Jake agreed.  
  
"Coffee?" Alec offered. The two boys agreed. "So what brings you two by this fine afternoon?"  
Alec asked, pouring them each a cup of coffee. "Sugar?"  
  
"Uh, yeah sure," Mac agreed. "Uh, Asha kinda blew up at us . . . she thought we should get to  
know you before we, uhm, started acting like we already did."  
  
"Are you sure you want sugar? 'Cause I don't really trust it these days. . . . You never know  
what it really could be."  
  
Mac's brow furrowed. -Okay then . . .- he thought. Human he may be, but this guy sure had  
some issues. "Uh, I'll take my chances."  
  
"It's your stomach," Alec conceded, sliding the sugar and the milk across the table to the two  
boys, who took seats around it. "And your funeral."  
  
Jake winced. This was more than just a little creepy; was the sugar poisoned? They couldn't be  
too sure. . . . To be on the safe side, Jake passed on the sugar and the milk. If he was lucky, they  
weren't an antitoxin to balance out the poisonous coffee. . . . He'd just have to see which one of  
them dropped dead.  
  
Alec flashed an eerily big grin at the boys. Creeping these guys out was way too easy.  
  
"So . . . um . . . how's today going?" Mac asked, gesturing to Alec's many many bandages.  
  
"Rather well." *Sinister grin.* Jake's face went as white as a ghost. *Internal fits of laughter. . .  
.* "I'm making up for yesterday's pain."  
  
It was Mac's turn to look a little frightened. Making up how? His stomach did a flip-flop. "Uh . .  
. uh . . . that's great."  
  
"Isn't it?" the cold, calculating look in Alec's eyes was terrifying. He leaned slowly forward  
towards the boys. "Have you ever had one of those days when you felt that someone out there  
was just looking to . . ." he paused, as if searching for the right words, "maim and disfigure you?"  
  
"Uh . . . not- not yet . . ." Jake stammered.  
  
Alec tilted his head to the side and arched his eyebrow thoughtfully. "Yet?" His lip curled up  
slightly, subtly showing his teeth.  
  
Jake's eyes almost bulged out of his head. He gulped. -Oh god oh god oh god he's gonna kill us  
he's gonna kill us he's gonna kill us I'mtooyoungtodiepleasedon'tkillme. . . .- Jake's bottom lip  
quivered.  
  
Mac seemed to be following a similar thought process. "You- you're gonna kill us, aren't you?"  
  
Alec grinned at him evilly. "Not right now. . . ."  
  
"Oh shit," Jake whispered.  
  
It was too much. Alec busted up laughing.  
  
Jake rose from his chair and backed away. He looked like he was about ready to wet himself with  
terror. Mac pushed his chair as far back as possible.  
  
Alec's gut ached horribly, and he was just short of pulling his stitches, but he couldn't stop  
laughing. It felt great! He threw back his head. "Oh fu-" Unfortunately, he threw off the  
balance of the whole chair in the process, and he toppled over backwards, smacking into the floor  
and rolling out of the chair. It only made him laugh harder. When he finally calmed down, he  
noticed Mac and Jake tiptoeing to the door. "You guys are way too gullible!"  
  
"Huh?" both boys asked in unison.  
  
"You really thought I was going to kill you or something?" Alec started laughing again.  
  
"Uh . . ." Jake scratched behind his ear, a little embarrassed. "Yeah, to tell you the truth. . . ."  
  
"Aw, geez," Alec chuckled. He rose awkwardly and painfully from the floor, wincing as he did  
so. "It's a really good thing Asha sent you guys over," he commented. "You really need to get  
your facts straight." He looked down at the bandages on his stomach, and pressed on them  
gently. Still good. "Hey, you guys wanna check to see if I pulled any of those stitches?" He  
gestured to his back.  
  
Mac nodded and hesitantly stepped forward to check it out. He winced behind Alec's back.   
"Looks like you did, there's fresh blood."  
  
"Damn," Alec muttered. "Hey, um, you think you could-"  
  
"Yeah, yeah, no problem," Mac said. "Where's your first aid kit?"  
  
"Ugh . . . should be on the coffee table." Jake went to retrieve the first aid kit, while Mac picked  
up Alec's chair and Alec sat gingerly back down. He leaned forward, his elbows on the table and  
his head in his hands. "Seriously though," he muttered, "maim, disfigure, torture. . . ." He turned  
his head to look at Mac while Jake handed him the kit. At the questioning look he met, he  
decided to plunge into the story. "First, as you know, I got shot in the gut. Then, the next night,  
I got kicked in the gut."  
  
Mac placed the kit on the table and opened it. "Looks like we'll have to replace the some of the  
stitches completely," he slipped in.  
  
Alec nodded. "Kicked hard enough to split my head open on the pavement." All three of them  
winced, Mac and Jake at the tale of woe, and Alec at the removal of stitches. Alec grimaced, and  
let his breath out in a hiss. "And that wasn't even yesterday," he muttered. "I'd try to count, but  
I couldn't accurately remember how many times I fell on my ass yesterday. I got shot at again. I  
got ran over by not one, but *two* cars at the one time. I met up with some truly unpleasant  
individuals. I crawled *through* a wall, and slipped and fell on my back hard enough to drive  
dozens of little pieces of glass through my jacket and into my back. . . ."  
  
"I don't think 'that sucks' is a suitable way to describe that," Mac observed.  
  
"Damn straight," Alec agreed. "Now, where were we? With the 'why you're here thing.'"  
  
"Uhh . . . getting our facts straight?" Jake supplied.  
  
"Oh." Alec's brow furrowed. "Not exactly an explanation one could put into words, is it?"  
  
"Doesn't seem like," Mac agreed.  
  
"Well . . . why did you come here?"  
  
"Because Asha said-"  
  
"And you're just following Asha's orders?"  
  
"Well . . . no," Mac said, wondering what the hell this guy was getting at.  
  
"We wanted to give you guys a chance," Jake offered.  
  
"Really?" Alec asked.  
  
"Really," Mac said.  
  
"Well, it seems you guys have your minds made up then." Alec slowly leaned forward and rested  
his head on the table.  
  
"I didn't mean . . . We didn't even ask you any questions or find out anything about you! We're  
not going to jump to conclusions just like that!" Jake protested.  
  
Alec closed his eyes. "But you came over here, unarmed and alone, and gave me a chance. If you  
really thought I was some beast, you probably would have taken this address and brought it to the  
guys who control the nukes."  
  
"We could have just been curious. . . ." Jake said.  
  
"You could have just been idiots. If you thought there was any chance that I was who so many  
people think I am and you came over anyway, then you most certainly would be idiots. I don't  
think you really need me to affirm your faith; thanks for that, by the way."  
  
"You say that with so much assurance. What if we came over with faith in you but came to the  
conclusion that you were lying?" Mac pointed out.  
  
"Hey Jake, could you kindly go get a pillow for me?"  
  
Jake looked around for a moment, then entered the nearest bedroom without hesitation, leaving  
his best friend alone with the transgenic. He returned with a pillow and handed it to Alec. "Now,  
you do realize that despite the fact I'm tired and in pain, I still have the strength and energy to kill  
three grown men in under five seconds with my bare hands, right?"  
  
Jake looked puzzled. "But not the will . . ." he said tentatively.  
  
"I think you can go now." Finished with the stitches, Mac stepped back slightly. He and Jake  
watched, speechless, as Alec slipped the pillow under his head.  
  
"Apparently we don't need any more proof to trust you," Mac conceded.  
  
Alec grinned. "Show the boy what he's won!"  
  
Mac and Jake won assurance, and a new appreciation for transgenics in general. Perhaps also a  
few pro-transgenic signs in their future. They left the apartment with peace of mind, and a one  
way ticket leading far away from discrimination.  
  
Drained physically, but not mentally; not today, Alec went back to sleep, right at the kitchen table. 


	15. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I don't presume to own Dark Angel, I could never have the genius to come up with it, or the stupidity to cancel it. I DO own my original characters.  
  
"Hot run, Sector three!" The brown package flew gracefully through the air. It hit the floor with a thud and a smash of glass breaking.  
  
Normal's eyes snapped to the messenger, gaping wide with shock.  
  
Alec stood on the ramp, huddled next to his bike with his hands in the air shielding his face. "Normal!" he yelled. "Watch where you're throwing those damn things!"  
  
All the other messengers in the building sent Alec similar looks of shock and puzzlement. The package had not come within five feet of him during its entire arc of flight. Original Cindy was the first to break the silence, "Boy, you trippin'," she said, gingerly picking up the wounded package and placing it on the dispatch desk from which it had been thrown. She picked up another package and walked her bike around Alec and out the door.  
  
Alec shot Normal a sheepish, lopsided grin. "I've had a rough couple of days," he offered by way of explanation.  
  
"Whatever," Normal muttered, holding up another package to Alec, but not throwing it.  
  
It was at this moment that Max chose to return from her latest delivery - with Alec and his bike still planted firmly in the center of the ramp.  
  
She slammed on her brakes and her bike skidded sideways, catching on a dent in the ramp and flipping her onto the floor. Alec tried to catch her, but her momentum pulled him down as well, spilling the two messengers and their bikes in a tangled mess on the concrete.  
  
When the dust settled, Alec sighed. "Will it never end?"  
  
Max, naturally, smacked him on the side of the head from her position half under him. "Bad enough it's not over - now you're dragging _me_ into it!"  
  
"Gee Max, I'm sorry, I'll re-arrange my pain schedule to avoid you next time."  
  
Max flashed him a grin. "Promise?"  
  
"Shut up," Alec muttered.  
  
Max frowned. "That's my line."  
  
"Someday this freak show will be over, and there won't _be_ any more lines," Alec snapped.  
  
Gradually, they could hear laughter building up among the bystanders. "Hey guys!" Sketchy said. They turned their heads toward him, only to meet the flash of his camera.  
  
"Hey!" Max yelled, attempting to rise up from the floor and smash the camera to little, tiny bits. This was easier said than done, however, and she made little progress. She did, however, manage to elbow Alec in the chest. "Sorry, sorry - SKETCHY! GET OVER HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU!" she yelled.  
  
For some unfathomable reason, Sketchy refused to follow orders.  
  
Max growled with frustration. "Alec, get off of me!"  
  
Alec grinned mischievously down at her. "What if I won't?"

Max glared at him. "I'll just have to kiss you too, then, won't I?"  
  
It was Alec's turn to frown. "Kiss me?"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Screw it," Max muttered. She reached up and wrapped her arms around Alec's neck, pulling him to her and kissing him fiercely.  
  
The other package fell from Normal's fingers and hit the floor. But that was okay; even if the packages were getting more punishment, perhaps _Alec's_ luck was changing.  
  
End. And I'm sure it's about time. ;)  
  
Thanks to all my reviewers and supporters along the way, you guys are great! And I'm sorry this little ending bit took soooo loooooooong... Really I am... But I hope you did enjoy!


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